Cannot delete files via Disk clean-up from fresh win10 install

hi guys,

Just recently installed a TON of updates on a new laptop i just got, it runs perfectly but there's a bunch of files that apparently cannot be cleaned. some language resource files and windows update cleanup then some leftovers from recent installs, as per below:





does anybody know how go give him a gentle nudge and doing that manually by a nice and brutal MANUAL DELETE? or if there's a command for having win10 refresh, it could be that they're deleted perhaps...basically after doing disk clean-up and click clean then they pop up again. already tried a ccleaner on everything and that, plus restart.. they're still there.. so 1GB wasted basically.

;-)

thanks,
Gabrio

gabgab said:

hi guys,

Just recently installed a TON of updates on a new laptop i just got, it runs perfectly but there's a bunch of files that apparently cannot be cleaned. some language resource files and windows update cleanup then some leftovers from recent installs, as per below:





does anybody know how go give him a gentle nudge and doing that manually by a nice and brutal MANUAL DELETE? or if there's a command for having win10 refresh, it could be that they're deleted perhaps...basically after doing disk clean-up and click clean then they pop up again. already tried a ccleaner on everything and that, plus restart.. they're still there.. so 1GB wasted basically.

;-)

thanks,
Gabrio

Hi gabgab,
Just tick all empty boxes in Disk Cleanup and press OK. If you want that deeper, click on Cleanup system files. Brink has a nice tut here:
Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10
you can also use the extended cleanup but make sure you give some time for complete execution. It is normal to have still leftovers after using Disk cleanup.
HTH

thank you guys - i did the extended cleanup and it did some extra stuff, however the language files still remain.

I also have a second laptop, same win10 installed etc, and i also have the 55 MB from windows update cleanup so i guess that's uncleanable, however this one should go:


i dont like wasting almost 1 GB of space.

So, where are those files, how can i delete that manually?

I only have 2 languages installed and even when i removed one with the menu option, it still had all those leftover and it still cannot clean that. so it's something else. any ideas?

thanks,
Gabrio

Bree said:

Usually that indicates that one or more Flash Player updates are still installed. Although the 'Update to remove Flash Plaver' will have been installed by now, it only removes the player from use, it doesn't remove earlier updates. You can uninstall them manually from the Control Panel.


Windows Update Cleanup - post #3

that's a neat one, thank you now it got rid of those 55MB... any chance you know also how to clean those language files leftovers? that's quite a big one, cheers! :)

- - - Updated - - -

i tried something now, i've used the steps in PS from this How to force remove a language pack on Windows 10 | Windows Central and deleted the second language i have here, which is italian.

what happened is that now disk cleanup finds 1.11 GB of stuff which he then cannot delete, how can it be possible?

1. i deleted a language pack and the found files that he "could" clean increased?
2. it still cannot clean it





- - - Updated - - -

last thing, i then re-installed italian, and after selecting it, it gets immediately installed, it doesn't download anything..... THAT sort of makes sense, which tells me that when you delete it, it doesn't really delete it, so it must be temp files somewhere but WHERE? or install package files, etc.

then disk cleanup again and it's back at 858 MB

gabgab said:

that's a neat one, thank you now it got rid of those 55MB... any chance you know also how to clean those language files leftovers? that's quite a big one, cheers! :)

- - - Updated - - -

last thing, i then re-installed italian, and after selecting it, it gets immediately installed, it doesn't download anything..... THAT sort of makes sense, which tells me that when you delete it, it doesn't really delete it, so it must be temp files somewhere but WHERE? or install package files, etc.

then disk cleanup again and it's back at 858 MB

Just a thought: Maybe you can try to delete your synced settings from MS account, if you have one. Since there are language preferences included, this can worth a try:



The tutorial from Brink, how to do this is here:

Delete Sync Settings for Windows 10 Devices from Microsoft Account

Ivan Petrov said:

Just a thought: Maybe you can try to delete your synced settings from MS account, if you have one. Since there are language preferences included, this can worth a try:



The tutorial from Brink, how to do this is here:

Delete Sync Settings for Windows 10 Devices from Microsoft Account

worth a shot, i just did that, but still get the language files there, boh, mystery, thanks anyway - maybe it deletes those cloud files automatically.

Interestingly on this new laptop everything was switched on to sync, while my other laptop (no language files issue there), wasn't and actually doesn't even allow me to, so weird.

thanks anyway

Very welcome! As far as I know, clearing the sync settings from MS account takes few days. Wait a bit and see. Sorry, I have no other clue how to fix it.