How to Easily Regain Hard Disk Space by Using Windows Update Cleanup
What’s the one thing that every computer user wants more of? If you guessed hard disk space, you’re right! Windows comes with all kinds of programs, services, drivers, and files that can be safely removed to free up room on your hard drive. Don’t let your computer become so full that it starts slowing down or running into errors! Find out how to easily regain hard disk space by using Windows Update Cleanup.
Step 1 – Go to Control Panel
Type control panel into the search box on the bottom left-hand side of your screen. Alternatively, you can right-click on a blank space in the Control Panel section and click control panel.
Once you’ve arrived at Control Panel, scroll down until you see Windows Update. Click it. Once there, make sure that you’re seeing the green numbers up top next to Updates Installed. If they’re red or any other color, run through these steps again. You may need to check for new updates as well.
After ensuring that everything is properly updated and updated, scroll down until you see Windows Update Cleanup. This feature removes outdated junk and reduces your hard disk usage without significantly affecting the speed of your computer.
Step 2 – Click Windows Update
To launch the process, open the Start menu or click the Win + I keyboard shortcut. The first time you do this, you’ll see a prompt that asks you whether you want to troubleshoot, launch an app from your account, or launch Control Panel. Select Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, select System and Security and then find the link for Windows Update. You may need to go through a couple of steps before reaching it.
One of these is ensuring that updates are set to install automatically; if they’re not already on this setting go ahead and do so now. Check the box next to Allow Installation of Updates for Important Microsoft Products when available. Then make sure Automatically download important updates for me, but let me choose whether to install them is checked as well.
Finally, click OK. Windows will show you what’s installed and what’s not installed. Scroll down to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (KB 976932) in the left column, right-click it, and select Uninstall to remove any unnecessary items. It might take some time for everything to finish downloading, depending on how much space you have left on your hard drive. After the update has finished installing, repeat Step 2 again until there’s nothing left in the list of things installed but uninstalled.
Step 4 – Select what you want to clean up
- Under What do you want to clean up? Select Windows Update Cleanup and click the arrow.
- Select how long-ago updates were installed, I’ll select a week and then click OK. The computer will then take a few minutes to complete the scan and give me an update on how much hard disk space it found.
- After this is done, I’m given an estimate of how much hard disk space can be saved which was 289 MBs in my case! Clicking on the links lets me choose what specific updates should be cleaned up but they are all checked off by default so you don’t have to worry about it. Next, I just click Finish. Done! That’s all there is to it. If you’re still concerned with losing your data, it’s best to back up your data first before trying these steps. Now that I’ve completed the cleanup process, I’ve gained some hard disk space and improved performance as well. Give it a try today!
Step 5 – Press the Clean up system files button
Press the Clean-up system files button. You will be asked if you want to delete any unwanted or unnecessary files, which is exactly what we want. Click OK. The cleanup process will automatically begin, and your PC will shut down when it’s finished (most likely in 10-20 minutes). After the reboot, windows may take a little longer than usual to load, but after a few minutes of login and customization, you’ll be back up and running with at least 15 GB of hard disk space back on your drive! This ends our tutorial on how to free up some hard disk space using the Windows Update Cleanup feature. For more tutorials like this one, check out My Digital Life!
Result
If you’re struggling with managing your hard disk space, try using the Windows Update Cleanup tool. This tool lets you uninstall previous updates that are no longer necessary and removes files that are no longer in use by an application. It also deletes temporary internet files and other system junk, making it easier for you to find important files. Finally, this will help free up hard disk space on your computer so that it runs more smoothly and quickly. To access the Windows Update Cleanup tool:
- Open Control Panel > System and Security > View Installed Updates
- Click View installed updates (should be near the top of the window)
- Click See details (near bottom of window)
- Select Uninstall this update from list of available options
