Software Distribution

Understanding software distribution requires examining multiple perspectives and considerations. Safe to delete "C:\\WINDOWS\\SoftwareDistribution\\Download". After you have installed all the pending updates, it is safe to delete all the files and folder under C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\ As @Zab said, stop the Update Service while you clean up the folder Enter net stop wuauserv into an elevated command prompt Manually clean up C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\ Enter net start wuauserv into an elevated command prompt As soon as ... Windows takes up >40GB of disk space - Super User.

Building on this, 3 Software Distribution folder The Software Distribution folder is used by Windows Update for downloading updates before they are installed. From its size, it seems to contain an entire Windows version. I suggest to check in Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update if you see "You're up to date". Another key aspect involves, how manually clean up C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download?.

What your linked answer means by "clean up" is to delete all of them. In other words delete the download folder. Here is the proper way to reset Windows updates from the Command Prompt, each of the lines below has to be run one at a time, after typing each one hit enter key then type the next command. Spaces are important in these commands. Command prompt can be found in the All Programs ...

In this context, windows update change download location - Super User. The updates are automatically downloaded to the WINDOWS\Software Distribution\Download subfolder. They are then unpacked to the drive which has the most free space available and installed from there. Equally important, copy "%SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution\Download" to another computer. Is it possible (and safe) to copy the SoftwareDistribution\\Download folder from one Windows XP machine, A, to another, B, and then let update.microsoft.com do its thing on B minus the download...

disk space - Can I delete files from C:\WINDOWS ... I need to free space on Windows XP SP3. Q1) What system folders can be safely delete in case I don't need to have restore points etc?

Moreover, q2) Can I delete content from C:\\WINDOWS\\SoftwareDistribution\\ Similarly, delete c:\\windows\\SoftwareDistribution - Super User. Have a quick hypothetical question, If I have a pending Windows(10) update and was to delete the contents of c:\\windows\\SoftwareDistribution folder would that prevent windows from installing the u... group policy - Software wont deploy, but GPO gets applied and MSI is .... These errors tell me that your GPO and software distribution are working fine. It's the installer itself that's failing for some reason, and (probably) not reporting 'why' back to the launching process.

To that end, they're telling you to check the log file of the installer to determine why, presuming the installer provides a log. When run by the GP at start up, the context is the "System ... Software Distribution Service 3.0 filling up my hard drive. What is Software Distribution Service 3.0 ?