Since the rollout of Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 feature update, version 24H2, a notable number of users have encountered challenges with the Windows Update Cleanup tool, which is designed to help free up storage space. Many users are reporting an inability to delete approximately 8.63GB of previous cumulative updates, a task that was straightforward in earlier iterations of the operating system.
User Experiences and Reactions
In a thread on Eleven Forum, a user known as thecaretaker shared their experience post-update:
Just updated to Win 11 Pro 24H2. All is working fine. However, I’ve got an additional 8.63GB of Update files that won’t delete (see image). I’ve run Component Store cleanup but it hasn’t made any difference. Also ran it in safe mode.
Another user chimed in, suggesting a Disk Cleanup as a potential solution. However, they quickly confirmed that this approach was also ineffective:
No, at least not on my PCs. An entry labelled “Windows Update Cleanup” at 8.63GB remains. Disk Cleanup will not remove it. I searched for a means to fix that. It appears that it’s a bug, Microsoft will have to fix.
While many users suspect this issue might stem from a bug in the Windows 11 24H2 update, the widespread nature of the problem raises questions about its underlying cause.
Speculation on Update Mechanisms
A user on the My Digital Life forum proposed an alternative perspective, suggesting that this situation may not be a bug but rather an intentional design choice by Microsoft:
Again, this is not really a problem/bug but the result of the current Updates development; the files need to be kept by the system.
This user referred to the new cumulative update delivery method introduced with Windows 11 24H2, known as “Checkpoint Cumulative Updates” (CCU). This method allows Microsoft to deliver updates as checkpoints rather than full updates, effectively reducing the size of each update. This change could explain why users are unable to delete the seemingly unnecessary 8.63GB of data.
However, this remains speculative, as it is equally plausible that the issue is indeed a bug requiring resolution. Microsoft has previously acknowledged a CCU-related problem that results in the “Operation is not supported” error message, indicating that users may need to stay tuned for further updates from the company.
