Cleaning manually after Windows update

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by LolLimewire, Jan 21, 2023.

  1. LolLimewire

    LolLimewire MDL Novice

    Aug 7, 2019
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    #1 LolLimewire, Jan 21, 2023
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2023
    We all know the command

    Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

    to clean up components that have been replaced or updated. Specially useful after a Windows update. Now, on a normal PC with SSD it takes a little while, nothing too serious. But on a miserable Atom with an eMMC it takes AGES. I had been running one today for more than 3 hours only for Windows to freeze when it was around 80%. After a reset it did something apparently, as I now have 42GB free from the 39 I had after updating (in these things every GB counts).

    After looking around it seems you're supposed to run Dism WITHOUT /ResetBase first and then again with it. See: http:// www edtittel.com/blog/wed-dism-resetbase-bites-back.html (had to break the url as I can't post them)

    Well, that's new to me. But still, now I'm just trying an /AnalyzeComponentStore and it's been going for 40 mins. Again 3 hours? It's sick.

    Is there any way to manually do what Dism does, delete files/folders, or some other command to force delete everything? I don't care about old components, old updates, old drivers. I don't intend to ever rollback or uninstall updates, I don't even care about future updates. In these little machines I install Windows afresh, let it update once and disable WU indefinitely. I just need the installation to be as efficient as possible regarding space.

    Thanks.


    Edit: Got fed up and closed the cmd. Run /StartComponentCleanup and completed in two mins. Again with /ResetBase, same. Now /AnalyzeComponentStore, same as fast, shows nothing more to clean. But somehow after all this I got an extra free GB. Yay! So in total more or less 4GB of crap gone (39GB -> 42 -> 43)

    I have another Atom tomorrow, will try again with /StartComponentCleanup first and THEN /ResetBase. That seems to be the key. While on an i5 with SSD both together are fine they make a lethal mix for an Atom/eMMC. We'll see.
     
  2. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

    Dec 8, 2018
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    Just look at the size of winSxS

    A cleaned UP one is around 7/8GB for x64 or 5/6GB for x86