Author Topic: [Completed] MS Update files in Win 7 - where?  (Read 1996 times)

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Offline MikeBCda

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[Completed] MS Update files in Win 7 - where?
« on: September 17, 2013, 11:28:02 PM »
Back when I was on XP, I found that Win Updates from Patch Tuesday added a new subfolder to the main Windows folder for each update, each quite large and containing essentially uninstall-info files.  I got into the habit of deleting these shortly afterwards, since they cumulatively amounted to several gigs.  Apparently no harm done (I didn't touch what was obviously the "master" update folder), and even subsequent cumulative updates, which typically clear out older updates which have been included or become otherwise no longer necessary, still had no problem with their cleanup.

I haven't been able to locate the equivalent files/folders in Win 7 (x64) -- while I've got a much larger drive now, I'd still like to keep it as clean as possible.  Anyone know if Win 7 updates don't work the same way, or if they do, where can I locate those files?  And if there, is it still OK to delete them?

Hopefully the above is understandable by someone here  ;)

« Last Edit: September 18, 2013, 10:40:27 PM by MikeBCda »
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Offline bob3160

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Re: MS Update files in Win 7 - where?
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2013, 11:49:13 PM »
Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder\
[/size]It's still in the same place in Windows 8.1 [/color]
[/size]Best way to remove them is to use the cleanup tool.
[/color]
[/size][/color]
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Offline MikeBCda

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Re: MS Update files in Win 7 - where?
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2013, 10:36:32 PM »
Thanks, Bob.  I just looked there and the total Download folder size is only around 50 MB, probably not worth worrying about.  I suspect since that's only about 2/3 of the total Sept. Updates download size, Win 7 only saves the most recent set and discards anything earlier automatically.  Nice change from XP, which saved everything forever.
Intel Atom D2700, 2 gig RAM, Win 7 x64 SP1 & IE-11, Firefox 51.0
(default). 320 gig HD, 15Mb DSL, Win firewall, Avast 12.3.2280 free, SpywareBlaster, MBAM Prem., Crypto-Prevent