How manually clean up C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download?

What mean? I uneducated in computer. Look below. No idea what mean all these letter number combinations. No idea delete what!

After you have installed all the pending updates, it is safe to delete all the files and folder under C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\

As @Zab said, stop the Update Service while you clean up the folder.

1. Enter net stop wuauserv into an elevated command prompt
2. Manually clean up C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download
3. Enter net start wuauserv into an elevated command prompt As soon as the service starts again, some folders will be re-created. This is ok.

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1 Answer

What your linked answer means by "clean up" is to delete all of them. In other words delete the download folder.

Here is the proper way to reset Windows updates from the Command Prompt, each of the lines below has to be run one at a time, after typing each one hit enter key then type the next command. Spaces are important in these commands.

Command prompt can be found in the All Programs-Accessories folder on the start menu, right click on Command prompt icon and select run as administrator.

net stop wuauserv

rmdir %windir%\softwaredistribution /s /q

rmdir %windir%\system32\softwaredistribution /s /q

regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll

regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll

regsvr32 /s atl.dll

regsvr32 /s wups.dll

regsvr32 /s wups2.dll

regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll

net start wuauserv

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