Remove a downloaded windows 10 update

Go to the Windows folder. While here, find the folder named Softwaredistribution and open it. Open the sub-folder Download and delete everything from it you might need administrator permission for the task. Now go to Search, type update, and open Windows Update Settings. A common cause of errors is inadequate drive space. When an update package is damaged or fails to install, Windows 10 may keep the corrupted file on the drive, so it will further cause issues with updates.

Here is how to delete the downloaded Windows Update files that Windows 10 doesn't delete itself. Windows 10 checks for updates automatically unless you disable this feature manually. The operating system comes with the Windows Update service, which automatically downloads and installs the updates from Microsoft. There are certain reasons for having corrupted Windows Update files. It can be an improper shutdown, OS crash, power failure, or something gone wrong with your Registry. 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. After that, the OS will download the update files again. Keep in mind this is just a possible solution for an update that fails to install and in some cases, it might not fix the problem. Guides Windows. Related Articles. How To: Enable the hidden emoticon keyboard on your iPhone or Feb 16, How to reinstall the Realtek audio drivers in Windows 10 Nov 23,