Not only it takes a lot of space but every other monthly update is ~ 900MB big. I have Project and Vision installed as well, but this is getting out of control. Why the updates are insanely big and is there a way to correct this? Every month my hard drive is going with less space after installing the updates. Should I remove something? Should I change something in my installation? I am deleting the MS Cache folder on my Windows partition, but no luck.
strange that you are taking up so much my installation is just 1.12 GB (1,206,026,240 bytes) and my ms cache folder is 1.29 GB (1,389,002,752 bytes) i have office 2013, project pro 2013 and visio 2013 installed, as for the updates nothing you can do about it is Microsoft way of patching and fixing all the errors
The updates replace already existing files for the most part, so the installation shouldn't get bigger each update
No, it won't. That is because it is only going to clean your Windows update history(the large files download by your Windows update still residing in your disk drive). That blog has a good reputation. I am beginning to suspect there is a malware in your system. Downaload Malwarebytes, install it and use it to scan your system for malwares.
I reinstalled the complete suite. So far so good. Regarding the "%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore" procedure, i do not believe it will change something - that folder is only 6 MB at the time being. CCleaner/Disk cleaner does not have the capacity to clean thoroughly the office files that are not needed.
They've just decided to group the updates in a way that updates every single file each month. We started noticing this something around June or so, perhaps sooner. They issue security fixes and stuff, but since they've decided to group everything together, it re-downloads everything. I don't know if there's a method to clean any old updates to clear up some space. A google search could probably solve that dilemma.
Yes and after it updates the suite, my hard drive gets bigger for ~1,5 GB after each Tuesday patch update (which is really unacceptable). Where exactly Microsoft office stores the downloaded updates? I re installed the complete suite a month ago and the partition was reduced for about 7GB. Regarding the "%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore" procedure, i do not believe it will change something - it is almost always empty. CCleaner also does not do much about it.
The %windir%\softwaredistribution folder is a dead-end for the storage issue. That is exclusively the storage for files downloaded by wuapp.exe (Windows/Microsoft Update) A crude google search suggests that you can try running cleanmgr.exe and clicking the system files button, or run as admin. I haven't tested it.