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How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache

Manually clearing the windows 10 update cache will resolve most issues you might be having installing the latest windows 10 updates on your machine.

In this guide I will show to step by step how to easily clear the windows 10 update cache from your machine.

How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache

Why do we need to clear the cache? If you are having issues running windows update and you get an error similar to the one above (Or one in this article Windows Update Components Must Be Repaired ) it is most likely due to an issue with an update file, Either that file was not fully downloaded or has become corrupt.  I will show you how to resolve this issue in the steps below.

How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache

To manually clear down the windows 10 update cache follow these steps.

  • Click start, type in “File Explorer” and left click on file explorer
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Right click on “Local Disk (C:)” then left click properties
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • On the next windows click on “Disk Clean-up” 
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Next click on “Clean up system files”
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Make sure you tick the boxes next to  “Windows upgrade log files” and “Temporary Windows Installation files” then click on OK.  Your system will now remove these files from your machine.
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Now click start and type in services and then left click on services application.
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Scroll down and right click on Windows Update and click stop. Wait for the service to stop which usually takes less than a minute
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Now open file explorer again and browse to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Now right click on the download folder and select delete, Hit Yes if you are prompted
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • Reboot your machine

We have now managed to manually cleare the windows 10 update cache, Run windows update again to see if your issue is now resolved.

How To Clear The Windows Update Cache In Windows 10 Via Command Prompt

Another way you can clear down windows 10 updates is via the command prompt.

To Clear The Windows Update Cache In Windows 10 Via Command Prompt follow these steps.

  • Click start, type in CMD then right click on “Command Prompt” and select run as administrator
  • If prompted by UAC click YES
  • In the command prompt window type in net stop wuauserv then hit enter (This will stop the windows 10 update application on your machine)
  • Type C: and hit enter
  • Type cd %Windir%\SoftwareDistribution and hit enter
  • Type del /f /s /q Download and hit enter
    How To Manually Clear The Windows 10 Update Cache
  • All of the windows 10 cache files on your machine will now be deleted
  • Restart your machine

How To Clear Windows Update Cache With a Script

To create a script to clear down the windows update cache follow these steps

  • Open notepad
  • Insert the below code in bold
    @Echo On
    net stop wuauserv
    C:
    cd %Windir%\SoftwareDistribution
    Type del /f /s /q Download
    pause
  • Save the file as Cleardown.cmd on your desktop
  • Right click on the Cleardown.cmd file and select run as administrator
  • When the script has finished it will pause so you can see the output of what it has done

How To Reset Windows Update Components In Windows 10

If the above solutions did not fix your issue you can try to reset the windows update components.

To Reset Windows Update Components In Windows 10 follow these steps

  • Click start, type in CMD then right click on “Command Prompt” and select run as administrator
  • If prompted by UAC click YES
  • In the command prompt window type in the following commands one by one
    net stop wuauserv
    net stop cryptSvc
    net stop bits
    net stop msiserver
  • Next run the following commands
    ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
    ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 Catroot2.old
  • Now restart your computer

Register BITS and Windows Update .dll Files

It is also a good idea to re-register windows 10 bits and windows update .dll file.  To do this follow these steps

  • Click start, type in CMD then right click on “Command Prompt” and select run as administrator
  • If prompted by UAC click YES
  • In the command prompt window type in the following commands one by one
    cd /d %windir%\system32
    regsvr32.exe /s atl.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s urlmon.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s mshtml.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s shdocvw.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s browseui.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s jscript.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s vbscript.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s scrrun.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s msxml3.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s msxml6.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s actxprxy.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s softpub.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s wintrust.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s dssenh.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s rsaenh.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s cryptdlg.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s oleaut32.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s ole32.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s shell32.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s wuapi.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s wuaueng.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s wups.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s wups2.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s qmgr.dll
    regsvr32.exe /s wudriver.dll
  • Restart your machine

Where is the windows update cache location in windows 10? The windows 10 windows update cache location is C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download.  All of the install files for windows updates are stored here.

It is very important to clear down this folder every few months as it can grow very large over time.