Windows 10: It it safe to delete the "C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes" files?

I've been trying to make some space on my C: drive without formating it, so I used WinDirStat to check some gigantic files I don't need and have found the "C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes" folder. It is huge 52 GB, full with "$$Deleteme..." files and some of them are even older than my purchase of the computer, so I would like to ask - is it safe to delete them? Please consider that because I usually have between 2 and 9 GB free on my C: disk, I can't get the latest updates, so anytime Windows starts the update, it doesn't finish and gets withdrawn, so I suspect that those files might

:)

 

Is it safe to manually delete files in WinSxS\Temp folder?

The /startcomponentcleanup switch should work. That was the one that cleared out the WinSxS/temp/pendingdelete folder in this thread. WindowsSxS Temp Files I routinely use Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup after every cumulative update and none of my PCs have anything in their pendingdelete folder. Just in case you were not aware of it, note that it is quite safe to delete the contents of the C:\Windows\servicing\LCU folder. This folder will contain a backup copy of the latest cumulative update after it has installed. This can be 900MB or so. I also routinely delete the contents of LCU after each new CU.

 

Is it safe to manually delete files in WinSxS\Temp folder?

For whatever reason, the Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup didn't work for me. As I mentioned in my OP, I ran this command in both normal and safe mode, but it didn't delete any files in that Temp folder. Also, the C:\Windows\servicing\LCU folder you mentioned does not exist on my laptop. I did a search in Explorer for "LCU" for my entire C drive and it didn't find anything, maybe because I don't have enough memory to do a Windows Update. Like I said above, I'm running Windows 10 Home Version 1607, that's the last update I was able to do and that was years and years ago.

 

Can you delete C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes?

Hi Tom,

I am Dave, I will help you with this, below are the steps to completely delete any files that can be safely deleted from your PC, including the WinSxS folder contents

1

Run Disk Cleanup trice as explained below.

Open File Explorer

Click on your hard drive

On the Manage Tab - Disk Tools, click Cleanup

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

Select Everything in the list and choose Delete

Start Disk Cleanup again

Let Disk Cleanup do its initial scan

Important, this time in the resulting dialog, click 'Cleanup System Files'

Let Disk Cleanup run another scan

Select Everything in the list and choose Delete

2

Click your start Button, then just type cmd and on the resulting menu, right click Command Prompt and select 'Run as Administrator'.

Run this command and press Enter:

DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup