Some of you will have smaller WinSxS directories, some larger. The size of the WinSxS directory will vary by server. Looking at my Windows 2008 R2 Server with SP1 installed, according to Windows Explorer, the size of my Windows/WinSxS directory is as follows: Let’s Cleanup those Old Windows Update Files!įirst, let’s take a look at our starting point. The KB article listed above will also direct you to a download link in the Microsoft Download Center. It can also be manually downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

The update is available on Windows Update. However, we are aware that for some of you, the Desktop Experience requirement will be a deal breaker, but decided to release it anyway hoping it will help in some instances. Knowing that it would be some time before everyone could upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2 and based on feedback from an internal survey taken of a subset of enterprise customers, it was determined that this update would still be useful in its Disk Cleanup form, even with the Desktop Experience prerequisite. This was evaluated, however, due to the amount of changes required and the rigorous change approval process, it was not feasible to back port the functionality this way. Why was the update not included as a DISM switch like Windows Server 2012 R2? It is instead a component installed with the Desktop Experience feature.

Why you ask? Disk Cleanup is not installed by default on Windows Server 2008 R2. What does this mean for Windows Server 2008 R2? After installing this update and prior to being able to perform the cleanup, the Desktop Experience feature must be installed. KB2852386 adds a Disk Cleanup option on Windows Server 2008 R2, similar to the Windows 7 update. The Windows 7 version of this fix introduced an additional option to the Disk Cleanup wizard that would cleanup previous versions of Windows Update files. It’s finally here! After pages and pages of comments from you requesting the ability to clean up the WinSxS directory and component store on Windows Server 2008 R2, an update is available.Īs a refresher, the Windows Server 2008 R2 update is directly related to my previous blog post announcing a similar fix for Windows 7 client. First published on TechNet on May 13, 2014

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