Running out of storage space is nothing new. Most of us have access to the internet and keep downloading stuff. Then there are games which can occupy a lot of storage space. The biggest problem arrives when you run of storage space on your Windows Installation drive which is usually the C drive, and the updates stop downloading. Windows OS doesn’t offer you an option to change the download location of the updates. In this post, we will learn to change Windows 10 Updates download location.
To select all files, click the circle to the left of the header row, or press CTRL + A on your keyboard. To select a folder, you may need to go up or back a level to select the whole folder, rather than just its contents. Select Download. Notes: The Download button will only appear when files or folder are selected. Folder Lock 7.7.6. Folder Lock is an excellent folder protection application that has Windows Explorer integration, Loads of lockable options and a wallet feature. It also comes with some good extras such as the back up and shred tools. Overall, Folder Lock is just what you need to secure your data in a simple, albeit ugly, interface.
Change Windows 10 Updates download location
- Windows 10 download file location. How can I delete the downloaded windows 10 files in my pc to free up my hard drive. It seems that 2+gig was used and I only have 25 gig total space in my c: drive. This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.
- Step 1: Open File Explorer, right-click on the Downloads folder in the navigation pane, and then click Pin to Start. Tip: In Windows 10, you can easily add the Downloads folder to left-pane of the Start menu, just above the power button. Refer to our how to add downloads & documents folders to Windows 10 Start menu guide for step-by-step instructions.
- In case you are not able to download Windows Update because of low space on the C drive, you can change where Windows 10 download updates. Follow the steps in this guide to move the Windows Update.
Before you begin, you should know that you will need to have administrator privileges to complete this. If you have a regular account, it’s a good idea to get in touch who had set up your PC and take his help.
The default location of Windows Update is C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution. The SoftwareDistribution folder is where everything gets downloaded and later installed.
Prepare a new directory for the system to download the Windows Update
Create a target directory in a drive other than C drive. It can be named as WindowsUpdateDownload for easy reference. Let’s assume that the path is D:WindowsUpdateDownload
Next, use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to launch the Task Manager and switch to Services tab, and then right-click on wuauserv, and stop it.
Now rename C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution to C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution.old Din en iso 1461.
Create Symlink
To create a symlink, in the start menu, search for CMD or command prompt. Right-click on it, and run it as administrator. Then type the below-mentioned command then hit Enter:
Windows Downloads Center
This will make Windows Update start the downloading files from zero to this new location.
In case it doesn’t work, you can try to boot Windows 10 in Safe Mode to get this done.
Restart Windows Update Service
After this, you need to start the Windows Update Service. You can either use the Task Manager to start it like we did above or execute the following command in CMD:
Check if Windows Update is working:
Go to Settings > Update and Security > Windows Update > Check for Update. If it starts downloading an update or does not throw any error, you are all set.
Here is an interesting fact, after downloading the Windows Update, the OS unpacks it in the drive which has the freest space available and installs from there. Windows will clear the content of this directory from time to time.
Default Download Folder Windows 10
We recommend you to use a storage space which usually remains empty. While you can choose an SD card (NTFS format) or an external drive, we recommend not to unless it always stays connected to the PC.
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