Remove files used to install Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Aug 5, 2016 09:53 GMT  ·  By

Now that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is here, the majority of users rush to install it, either via Windows Update or with the Media Creation Tool that allows direct upgrades or clean installs.

And while this is perfectly fine (after all, why wouldn’t you try to update to the latest OS version anyway?), there’s something you need do know. After the update to Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you might lose anywhere between 5 GB and 20 GB of storage space, depending on how big your existing Windows installation currently is.

This is because Windows 10 Anniversary Update automatically backs up your Windows folder and downloads necessary data to deploy the new version, while also leaving behind some temporary files that were used during the process.

Make sure you read this warning

Before going to the actual steps of reclaiming lost space after installing the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, here’s something that you need to know: if you remove these files, you won’t be able to downgrade back to your existing Windows version.

This means that you’ll be stuck with Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and the only way to downgrade will be to clean-install whatever version of Windows you are running.

So to get back the space you lost after launching the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, open “This PC” and right-click the C: drive to open the “Properties” screen. The follow this path to reach the window that will let you delete files eating up your space:

Disk Cleanup > Clean up system files (admin rights needed) > Previous Windows installations

In most of the cases, this “Previous Windows installations” section has more than just a few gigabytes of data, so check this option and hit the “OK” button. It’ll take a while to complete, depending on its size, but when it’s done, you’ll get all this space back. The Windows.old folder from your C: drive should also be gone, but so will be the option to downgrade to a previous Windows version.