Windows 11 24H2 hoards 8.63 GB of junk you can't delete Windows 11 24H2 users are finding there is undeletable data that remains on their devices after installing the recently released feature update. Microsoft Copilot logo Microsoft hits go on Windows 11 24H2: Fresh features, bugs, and a whole lotta AI READ MORE The known issues list has not grown in the days since the rollout …
This just adds to the reasons why I abandoned Windows on my own home PC's nine years ago after MS tried to force Win10 onto my Win7 machines without my consent and I moved across to Linux Mint. MS really do not have a fucking clue these days and I will repeat this until someone can give me a logical and sensible reason to change my opinion: the entire design of Windows has been fundamentally flawed since they brought out NT. Nothing is done right, updating the front-end is the highest priority, backward compatibility is sacrosanct, security is an afterthought and patching is dependent on what our beta testers preview users have reported as now broken. There is absolutely no logical reason why installing a device driver or a standalone application should ever require a reboot. Neither should turning on a built-in feature.
Managing a single Windows machine these days is a catastrophically miserable experience so I avoid it wherever possible. I've been asked on more than one occasion by a friend or family member to 'take a look' at their Win8 or Win10 PC and I've just declined as it is just too much of a pain in the arse for me.
To be fair, I have had occasional issues with Linux Mint when updating, but reinstalling GRUB isn't difficult, and booting off a Live USB and running Timeshift to rollback is a doddle - something which has NEVER worked under Windows.
From the article:
The known issues list has not grown in the days since the rollout on October 15, however, for many users – this writer included – attempts to clean up the detritus after the update has left 8.63 GB of disk space occupied by "Windows Update Cleanup."
That's interesting, since the article was posted on October 11th.
How does that work, Richard? Have you secretly invented a time machine for your own personal use, that is able to transport you ahead in time? (Hey, can you give me the next set of winning lottery numbers, then?)
https://www.theregister.com/Author/Email/corrections?message=re:%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theregister.com/2024/10/11/windows_update_cleanup/
Apparently "24H2" began rolling out to all users on October 1, 2024.
Allowing it to install within 10 days is ...brave.
I submit corrections on a fairly frequent basis. In fact, the last was just a couple of days ago (a headline that was a bit confusing) and it was correct within minutes.
My interactions with the duty editors have always been uniformly hypercordial and professional.
But, then, I try to be polite with I submit a correction and, when necessary, provide documentation to back up my position.
Try to recognize that the person on the other end of the email is. . . wel. . . a person and that fallibility is part of the human condition and you'll probably get the desired result.
In a Previous Life I spent a bit of time as a journalist in small market radio here in the States and so I know that journalists make mistakes (I'm responsible for a couple of real howlers, as they're known in the business) but at the core of the profession is getting facts right, even if they have to be corrected ex post facto.
Having said that, yes, the Corrections contact could probably be a bit easier to find.
The corrections link is broken for me, this is what I get.
"If you want to send corrections a message, fill in the form below.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Loading...
A problem occurred with the loading/setup of reCAPTCHA.
Please email webmaster@theregister.com if you're having consistent problems with the reCAPTCHA."
Requiring your PC to waste storage keeping copies of all the update packages so they can download binary differentials is ridiculous. The concept sounds fine in theory EXCEPT when you realize how much space it will mean being used. That's SO much data! That's bigger than the Windows installer ISO! And the vast majority of people just won't give a fuck about the way updates work. Updates ought to be running during off-hours, but really most people have no idea and how much is being downloaded just doesn't matter to them. And the worst part is that it's not going to actually make updates faster, and sure as hell isn't going to make them less likely to destroy your computer.
Yeah but it's not MS storage. It means MS have lower loads on their servers, lower costs for flinging out updates and that is all that matters to them.
The fact that it's your resources makes no difference to MS. They know 99% of users won't even know how to find the disk cleanup function, let alone figure out how much space is being eaten up by MS' updates.
Just like using people's PC's to build MS' generative AI models using local data then uploading the models to the main codebase (like they are doing with Skype). Using people's PCs is free, running the same process on MS hardware costs money...
Yeah that's true. They started it out with the "Delivery Optimization" for Windows Updates, which would connect to other people's PCs on the Internet to get updates through P2P tech, which was so bizarre, brazen and unethical that they backed down and made it only use machines on your local network by default, where it makes sense.
Oh, then there's that one folder (WinSXS) under the windows directory which, on older installs that have gotten regular patches, grows to become the largest space consumer, because the update subsystem kept a copy of EVERYTHING it updated over 'for compatibility reasons'.
And purging it ether got denied due to unbreakable permissions, or if you did managed to nuke it you either broke your installation, or some random app that needed a specific, special version of a DLL and wouldn't work with a newer version for reasons.
It would be interesting to know just what this 8.63GB actually is. The consistency of reports would seem to indicate it is a virtual disk.
It would not be a surprise if on a new disk install, Windows creates a partition (or enlarges the recovery partition) for this repository.
On my server that disk space would cost 10p or 20p mirrored rising to 30p mirrored with cold backup. On my PC M2 memory, which is where it will be, perhaps 50 or 60p but as I can't imagine I will ever go above 50% disk full it's irrelevant. Slightly annoying but nothing I'm ever going to worry about.
Ummm, not so cheap when it's 8 GB x 500 virtual machines and each one of them using enterprise-grade storage ($$$$$).. And the additional backup space that is being consumed. Who knows what MS is using this for, but as another post speculated, could be a Recall cache reserved space - just like is done for their recovery partition. It's funny (not) that this is showing up about the same time that MS is making noise about bringing back Recall soon.
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that they're not out to get you (and your data).
Time will tell, if this is just a bug (in the future, will be able to be deleted) or whether it's intentional..
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Linux was released AFTER Windows in the 1990s and Linux is able to update the system on the fly while you're using it, Windows still needs to sit on the "BSOA" ( Blue Screen of Annoyance ) for 10-15 mins once a fortnight while it updates and you pray like hell the patches will work. Number of times I've had calls from friends and family who's PCs have sat for 45-60 mins on the BSOA, panicked, called me and I've said "Pull the plug and restart, should be OK.". I had one relie in tears once as she was terrified her docs were gone!
It's 2024 Microsoft, you should be able to patch in the background, sign off automatically and request a quick 30 sec reboot to apply, not the charade we have to go through every couple of weeks for simple patch cluster.
Systems like Solaris and others have been able to literally hold an entire patched O/S root on disk to one side, you can boot between them at will, have as many roots as you have disk space for with different revisions of the O/S. We patch our Solaris boxes on the Thu and leave them until Sat morning, flip the boot environments from a master system and reboot the boxes one after another, back in abot 90 secs and these systems are about 10 years old!
But they need time to search your system for what you have been doing, how many times you logged into The Reg and /., booted the Linux partition and other non-Windows friendly things and you can't be allowed to see them doing it.
Nah, they are just incompetent and the Windows update process is so convoluted half of it is documented as 'binary blob we don't know what it does and update won't work without it.'.
So nothing gets changed and nobody gets fired for waiting for an update.
Problem is if you do that then future updates may not install because they rely on having the previous updates there to cumulate (if that's even a word) from. And if Windows thinks the files are there but they're not then you start getting into all sorts of weird and wacky problems which can't really be solved except by an OS reinstall.
So exactly where is this 8+ GB of excrement stored? I must have missed that. Just like I don't miss whacking every trace of msedge and copilot from my win10 box. And you'd think by now mictosoft would have learned how to NOT install unnecessary files like pretty much every other bit of software can. Such as foreign languages, unconnected device dlls etc.
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> It is possible to remove them manually, but doing so could cause issues when the next set of updates arrive.
What was the last thing on Earth that doesn't ever caused issues with the next Windows update? Sea level raising? Weather in Zimbabwe? Higgs boson? It became very difficult to be sure.
An offline W7 system with your data/content on an external HDD. And something else (WindowsBS/Linux/Tablet) connected to the net.
Work on the offline system. Switch data on memory cards/USB sticks.
If a Windows update or a hack kills your online system, erase and reboot. No work data lost and you can carry on working whilst it reboots, updates or whatever.
The latest version of Windows is no longer reliable, private or user friendly enough to be your primary work machine, but can function as a crash test dummy/Terminal/Telescreen.
That more or less describes my setup at home re: windoze PC's.
Windows 7 is usable and I have many decades of muscle memory to rely on.
Windows 11 is there for all the 'Does not work on Win 7/8/10 issues', I use it because I have to *BUT* my patience is wearing very very thin !!!
MS will never learn ... eventually Windoze will be subscription *only* ... that will be the point I 'nuke it from on high' ... 'Just to be sure' !!!
:)
I remember when i got my first job in IT in the late 90s and we were installing PCs with a hard drive capacity of only 6GB for the entire OS of Windows NT 4, MS Office plus some other specialist software. And there was still probably 5 GB free after all that was installed.
I really don't see how Windows has grown to need that much drive space from the NT/2000 era, as Windows 10/11 is basically the same OS with just a fancy coat of paint on top
What about Recall? When are they going to be sued by the EU? People on the insider build, as mentioned by Chris from Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility mentioned, on his latest update he was getting reports of explorer crashing with his app. Then discovered its because they've tied Recall into explored. In what would appear a way to stop people uninstalling it.
The EU won't have any of that, so I suspect they'll be another EU version out like Windows N.
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