When installing an important update in Windows 10, in this case we are talking about the Update 1909 of November 2019, the system downloads and creates numerous installation files, which at the end of the procedure are kept on the main disk. The installation program also prepares a way to go back, to uninstall the update itself and return to the previous version (build) of Windows 10. Precisely, recovery files are saved (in the Windows.old folder) in the system unit in which Windows is installed, hard disk or SSD, which allow, in case of problems, to uninstall the latest update and restore the correct functioning of the PC.
If the update was smooth and smooth, and everything works fine, there is no reason to go back and you can safely delete the files created by the installation of the Windows 10 update and free up disk space on your PC in decisively, going so far as to cancel, in the case of a feature update, up to 25 Giga .
IMPORTANT NOTE: The files to uninstall an update remain on the disk for 10 days, then they are automatically removed from Windows 10.
There are two ways to delete these update installation files in Windows 10 and my advice is to use them both to be sure to remove everything and delete any temporary files left after installing the May Update for Windows 10 .
1) The first method is via Windows 10 Settings .
Open Settings by clicking the gear icon on the left in the Start menu or by pressing the Windows - I keys together.
In the Settings, go to System> Storage and click the link where Configure Memory Sensor is written.
I had talked about this recent feature in a guide on how to keep free space in Windows 10 by activating "Memory Sensor".
Go down to find an option asking if you want to delete previous Windows installations and select it. Below, press the Clean Now button, which is just a click away. The system will automatically delete the Windows Update log files (around 300 MB) and then the files of the previous Windows Installations, i.e. the files of the previous version of Windows 10, saved in the Windows.old folder (24 Giga in my PC).
1 Bis) From the Settings> System> Storage menu you can see the detail of the space occupied by the various categories of files on the drive where Windows 10 is installed (it should be disk C). After a small upload, you will be able to see the space occupied by the various folders, among which, scrolling down, you will find a line with the wording Temporary files which should mark a size of around 10 or 15 GB .
Clicking on Temporary files will bring you back to the list of files that can be deleted from the PC without problems, with the possibility of selecting to see the details of how this space is occupied and you will also find the lines of the " Previous Windows Installations " from 24 GB and the Windows update log files . Place the cross on the square next to these two items and press Remove file . If desired, you can also cross the other lines to delete all the temporary Windows 10 files.
2) The second method is that of cleaning Windows Update files already explained in the past.
Specifically, you need to open the command prompt and first launch the Cleanmgr / sageset: 65535 command, then after selecting the previous installation files and pressing OK, type the Cleanmgr / sagerun: 65535 command .
This way you can be sure that you have really deleted all the temporary Windows 10 files.
READ ALSO: All the ways to free up disk space on Windows
