The Software Distribution folder in Windows operating system is a folder located in the Windows directory and used to temporarily store files which may be required to install Windows Update on your computer. It is thus required by Windows Update and maintained by WUAgent.
Software Distribution folder location
Learn how to remove, delete, rename or empty the contents of Software Distribution folder in Windows 10/8/7. Helps resolve Windows Update problems & issues. Taskkill /f /fi 'SERVICES eq wuauserv' taskkill /f /fi 'SERVICES eq wuauserv' taskkill /f /fi 'SERVICES eq wuauserv' net stop cryptSvc net stop bits net stop msiserver ren C: Windows SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old rmdir C: Windows SoftwareDistribution DataStore rmdir C: Windows SoftwareDistribution Download. Jun 14, 2019 Windows 10: Microsoft Store install button greyed out.SOLVED. Discus and support Microsoft Store install button greyed out.SOLVED. in Microsoft Windows 10 Store to solve the problem; SOLVED: Updating to the newest version of Windows (linked below) seems to have resolved the issue. Hopefully someone else find this helpful I. Discussion in 'Microsoft Windows 10 Store' started.
Net stop wuauserv del c: windows SoftwareDistribution /q /s net start wuauserv. I am not aware of a 'best practice' way of reducing the size of the folder, but I have used methods similar to the one above. However, I do not recommend having it as a computer startup script.Possibly. as a scheduled task that runs every quarter or bi-annually. Sep 30, 2018 ren C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old rmdir C:WindowsSoftwareDistributionDataStore rmdir C:WindowsSoftwareDistributionDownload. Those commands do not work. Rename a directory and then try to delete subfolder from the old directory name? Did you mean to copy that instead to make a backup? Jun 13, 2019 Windows 10: Microsoft Store install button greyed out Discus and support Microsoft Store install button greyed out in Microsoft Windows 10 Store to solve the problem; I recently purchased the Xbox gamepass for PC, and during my installation of several games ran into a problem. On attempting to install Metro Exodus. Discussion in 'Microsoft Windows 10 Store' started by Aegis270, Jun 13, 2019.
The The Software Distribution folder in Windows 10/8/7 is situated in the following location in File Explorer:
C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution
On my computer is size is around 1 MB, but its size could vary.
Is it safe to delete Software Distribution folder
While you do not want to touch this folder under normal conditions, you may need to empty its contents should you find that your system’s Datastore and the Download folder have got de-synchronized, resulting in your Windows Updates not working properly.
It is generally speaking safe to delete the contents of the Software Distribution folder, once all files required by it have been used for installing Windows Update. Even if you delete files otherwise, they will get automatically downloaded. If you were to delete the folder itself, it will get automatically re-created and the required WU components downloaded automatically.
However, this data store also contains your Windows Update History files. If you delete them you will lose your Update history. Moreover, the next time you run Windows Update, it will result in a longer detection time.
If your Windows Update is not working properly or not working at all or if you find that the size of this folder has really grown large, then you can consider deleting the Software Distribution folder in Windows 10/8/7.
If it is just the size, then if you use Disk Cleanup Tool and opt to Clean up System Files on your System Drive, and then Windows Update components & Delivery Optimization files , you will find that the size of this folder will get substantially reduced. But if you are facing Windows Update issues, then you flushing this folder has been known to help fix several issues like Windows Update not working, Windows Updates fail to install, Failure configuring Windows updates, Windows Update stuck downloading updates, We couldn’t complete the updates,Windows 10 keeps installing the same update and so on.
Delete Software Distribution folder
To delete the contents of the Software Distribution folder, in Windows 10, from the WinX Menu, open Command Prompt (Admin). Type the following one after the other and hit Enter:
Rmdir C Windows Softwaredistribution Datastore 10
This will stop the Windows Update Service and the Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
Now browse to the C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution folder and delete all the files and folders inside.
You may press Ctrl+A to Select All and then click on Delete.
If the files are in use, and you are unable to delete some files, restart your device. After rebooting, run the above commands again. Now you will be able to delete the files from the mentioned Software Distribution folder.
After you have emptied this folder, you may restart your computer or you may type the following commands, one at a time in the CMD, and hit Enter to restart the Windows Update related Services.
Now that folder has been flushed, it will now get populated afresh.
Rename SoftwareDistribution folder
If you wish to rename the Software Distribution folder, open an elevated command prompt windows, type the following commands one after the other, and hit Enter:
Alternatively, you may also boot Windows 10 into Safe Mode, and rename SoftwareDistribution to SoftwareDistribution.bak or SoftwareDistribution.old.
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Hope you find the post useful.
C Windows Softwaredistribution Folder
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