Removing old downloaded files

After that, Windows Update may fail to do its job properly. The OS may fail to check for updates, or fail to install them.

Sometimes, the Windows Update page in Settings cannot be opened! To fix most of the Windows Update issues in Windows 10, usually it is enough to run the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter. When you run into issues though with updates, you may spend hours or even days figuring out what is going wrong. In such case, you can try to delete downloaded Windows Update files to start over.

The SoftwareDistribution folder contains files related to updates obtained via Windows Update, it is present on all versions of Windows. It could have a couple of hundreds megabytes of size. But if this folder is much larger, this indicates that some updates are corrupted. Restart Windows 10 and check for updates. See if this fixed your issues. The command net stop wuauserv stops the Windows Update service. The del command erases the contents of the Download folder and its subfolders.

Finally, the last command, net start wuauserv , starts the Windows Update service again. If you want the application to run automatically when you login, you can create a shortcut in the shell:startup folder. Once you are done with that rule, you can create a completely different rule to match different files… for instance I created a rule to move all downloaded images to my Pictures folder.

Download Belvedere from lifehacker. Do I need one? Customize the Taskbar in Windows What Is svchost. Browse All Buying Guides. Best iPhone 13 Pro Case. Best Bluetooth Headphones for Switch.

Best Roku TV. Best Apple Watch. Best iPad Cases. Best Portable Monitors. Best Gaming Keyboards. Best Drones. What Windows can do is delete local files that are already backed up in the cloud, saving space. Before you can access it, however, it must be downloaded from OneDrive, which might be undesirable for those users with slow or unreliable Internet connections.

You can save space, sure, but it might not be worth the inconvenience. The Desktop and Videos folders probably hold content you want to keep, and even selecting the Show more categories link at the bottom simply opens up folders like Documents and Music that you may want to leave intact.

Why not let Windows do it for you? Toggle it on, and it will automatically delete files in the Recycle Bin after 30 days, and eliminate other temporary files, too. Our previous Storage Sense how-to is still in effect, but Windows has added controls to optionally delete files in your Downloads folder.

Best iPhone 13 Pro Case. Best Bluetooth Headphones for Switch. Best Roku TV. Best Apple Watch. Best iPad Cases. Best Portable Monitors. Best Gaming Keyboards. Best Drones. Best 4K TVs. Best iPhone 13 Cases. Best Tech Gifts for Kids Aged Awesome PC Accessories. Best Linux Laptops. Best Bluetooth Trackers. Best eReaders. Best Gaming Monitors. Best Android Phones. Browse All News Articles.