When you update your PC from an existing Windows installation, the old files remain on your hard drive. They are saved there instead of being overwritten because something might go wrong during the update installation, or because you might want to roll your PC back to a previous installation if you aren't happy with the new stuff.
If, however, the update to Windows 10 goes smoothly, and you're sure you don't want to return to a previous version of Windows, you can delete those old installation files to free up space on your hard drive. This is especially important for anyone using a device with a smaller solid-state drive (SSD).
Delete Windows Installation Files
Although removing old Windows installation files won't harm your PC, it's always a good idea to back everything up in case something goes wrong. Once you're sure you're completely satisfied with the Creators Update, this guide can help free up space on your hard drive.
Once the old installation files are removed, you won't be able to roll back to a previous version of Windows. Unless you have a secondary backup that you can restore from, you'll have to do a clean install of Windows to return to a previous state. So make sure you're really ready before you remove the old files.
The installer cache is used to maintain (remove / update) the applications and patches installed on the computer. The installer files are a record of file versions and registry dependencies involved in a particular application or application update installation. The availability of this record in the cache helps to uninstall and update applications properly.
You can use Disk Cleanup to reduce the number of unnecessary files on your drives, which can help your PC run faster. It can delete temporary files and system files, empty the Recycle Bin, and remove a variety of other items that you might no longer need.
Ten days after you upgrade to Windows 10, your previous version of Windows will be automatically deleted from your PC. If your drive is low in space, you can manually delete the previous version of Windows installation. This article describes 3 ways to delete Windows installation files on Windows 10 PC.
What is Windows Installer folder? Is it safe to delete files in this folder? This post of MiniTool would tell you how to safely free up space with the help of the Windows Installer cleanup utility.
Windows installer patches sometimes may get orphaned during the process of software uninstallation. When a program is uninstalled, the corresponding .msi package is left behind in the Windows Installer folder. Then these orphaned packages can be deleted.
How to find the orphaned .msi files? PatchCleaner identifies orphaned files in the Windows Installer folder and offers you the option to delete these files or move them to a different location. Follow these steps to use this Windows Installer Clean up tool.
Step 3: When the installation process ends, run it by double-clicking on its icon on the desktop. Then you can see the corresponding sizes of used, excluded, and orphaned files in the Installer folder.
Step 5: If there are any orphaned files on your computer, click details to learn the detailed information. Then you can either delete the orphaned setup package or move it to another folder and then delete it safely after a few days.
In cases like that, you need a third-party program to find and delete unused files in the Windows Installer folder. MiniTool Partition Wizard is an ideal option. For more information, move to the next section right now!
Find what is taking up your hard drive space with a professional disk space analyzer and then delete unused files or folders. MiniTool Partition Wizard is such a tool. Its Space Analyzer feature enables you to know what is exactly consuming your disk space.
You can copy the whole Windows Installer folder and then paste it to another drive, and then delete files in the folder. This operation can avoid some issues caused by file deletion. The time required for copying and pasting the folder depends on the size of this folder.
Step 5. Storage sense is a new OS feature that is disabled by default, but in this section you will learn what it does and how it might make be good for you to enable it to delete temporary files, empty the recycle bin after a certain period of time, or even files in the Downloads folder. We'll leave that decision up to you.
Whenever you install a major update for Windows 10 or upgrade to the latest build of Windows 10, you need to manually delete some files and folders to regain lost disk space due to the update. You likely know that you can free up GBs of space by deleting Windows.old folder as well as deleting old Windows 10 drivers.
The temporary Windows installation files are usually created when you upgrade Windows 10 to a new major build. For instance, temporary Windows installation files are created when you upgrade to Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
Step 2: Click the Disk Cleanup button to run the Disk Cleanup tool. The Disk Cleanup tool might take up to a few minutes to show files and folders that can be deleted to free up disk space.
Step 4: Look for the entry named Temporary Windows installation files, check the box next to it, and then click OK button. Click Yes button if you see the confirmation or warning dialog to continue deleting temporary Windows installation files.
If you delete files from the Windows\Installer directory, you might get an error when you try to update, repair, or uninstall programs whose installer files you have deleted. Because of the error, you might not be able to completely uninstall some programs.
PatchCleaner is a free utility designed to help you safely delete orphaned files from the Windows\Installer directory. It helps you delete installers and patch files left behind by programs.
On Windows 10, temporary files are those app files stored on your computer to hold information for a short period. In addition, the system has many different temporary file types, including those leftover files after installing a new version, upgrade logs, error reporting, temporary Windows installation files, and more.
After your computer applies a Windows patch, the patch file along with other files related to the installation are cached in the hidden system folder C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$. The files in this cache are mainly used to roll the system back when a patch is uninstalled. Over time, this storage place may become quite large, and if you have a computer in your office with a rapidly filling hard drive, clearing the cache can free up gigabytes of space that can be used for business documents such as contracts, invoices, employee evaluations or copies of business letters.
When you update your Windows Operating System, the old OS files continue to remain on the disk and are stored in Windows old folder. These files are saved as they would be required to roll back to an earlier version of Windows, if and when needed. So, you must be thinking that should I delete Windows setup files but, these files are important when some error happens while Windows installation. When something goes wrong during Windows installation, these files will prove to be helpful to restore it to the previous version. In addition, if you are not satisfied with the newly updated version of Windows, you may roll back the operating system to the earlier version. If your update runs smoothly and you do not want to roll back, you may delete Win setup files from your device as explained in this article.
Win Setup Files can be helpful but these files get accumulated and take up huge disk space. As a result, many users wonder: Should I delete Windows Setup Files? The answer is Yes. There is no harm in deleting Win setup files. However, you cannot delete these files & folders like you normally do. Instead, you will need to use third-party tools or utilize the methods discussed below.
Deleting Windows files is often scary. If a necessary file is deleted from its original directory, your system may crash. It is safe to delete the following files from your Windows PC when you do not need them anymore:
Disk Cleanup is similar to Recycle Bin. The data deleted through Disk Cleanup are not permanently deleted from the system and remain available on your hard drive. You may recover these installation files, whenever needed. Follow the steps mentioned below to delete Win setup files using Disk Cleanup.
5. Wait for the process to be completed and all Win setup files will be deleted except for the last restore point. In this way, you can be certain that you will be able to restore your system, if and when needed.
If you did not get a fix by any of the methods mentioned above, you could try to delete Win setup files using third-party tools like CC Cleaner. This tool could help you to clean your device within a few minutes, including clear browsing history, cache memory and free up your disk space as much as possible.
Note: For Windows, CCleaner will delete the Windows OS files, by default. Whereas, for Applications, CCleaner will delete the programs which you have installed manually.
We hope you got an answer to your query should I delete Windows Setup files and you were able to delete Win setup files on your Windows 10 PC. Let us know which method was easiest for you. Also, if you have any queries or suggestions regarding this article, then feel free to drop them in the comments section.
If you want to upgrade or reinstall the Windows system on your PC, you can create a Windows bootable USB flash drive as a Windows installation media. And this media contains starting and OS files that boot your computer into installation program, but it can't be used as storage device until you delete the windows installation files. 2ff7e9595c
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