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When I am trying to clean the 2.53 GB of old "Windows Updates" by pressing "OK" in

enter image description here

and then re-open the clean up window, all those old updates are still there. I ran

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

(here I get error 87 "The option analyzecomponentstore is not recognized in this context."

enter image description here

See the dism.log at https://pastebin.com/6gkw9iPx.

)

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

following https://answers.microsoft.com/de-de/windows/forum/all/update-bereinigung-funktioniert-nicht/59e06edf-2079-4718-91d5-752e82284940, but that did not change anything. What might be the issue and what can I do to solve it?

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  • Please include in your post the entire error 87 message. Are you running DISM as Admin?
    – harrymc
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 13:08
  • @harrymc: I added the information. Yes, admin.
    – Make42
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 13:13
  • Could you also post the file C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 13:17
  • @harrymc: I uploaded the file to pastbin - see question.
    – Make42
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 14:03
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    @Make42 - Windows Update History. AnalyzeComponentStore only exists on Windows 10, so the command will literally do nothing on Windows 8.1 as expected. I strongly suspect that /StartComponentCleanup is also a Windows 10-only command. There is a workaround but are you positive you want to reset the history of WIndows Updiate? That will mean it will be impossible to rollback any previous updates
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 14:42

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Windows locks some update files for a period of time. Some disk cleanup tools, such as Wise Disk Cleaner, or some alternatives, seem to bypass that time-lock, allowing removal of downloaded update files. After an update, hundreds of megabytes of files can be safely removed. N.B. Windows Restore Points take up considerable disk space; if you regularly make full disk images, consider deleting all Restore Points and turn off Restore Point protection.

Wise Disk Cleaner MS Update Cleanup

That said, now would be a good time to consider an alternative to Windows 8.1, particularly if the machine using it has connection to the internet. Windows 8.1 end-of-life is approaching in a few months, and there will be no further security updates. If you don't want to update to a later Windows version, consider testing an alternative OS, such as Linux. To see if a new OS is suitable, run it from a live USB, e.g., Ubuntu's, which makes no changes to the existing HDD/SSD and requires no installation.

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  • As I said to harrymc: I interpreted the 2.53 GB to be what can be deleted not the amount of space that the updates is taking up. Thanks for the suggestions! Regarding Linux: I am already 99% of my time on my Linux OS, and only go to Windows (dual boot) to play, which happens maybe 5 times a year.
    – Make42
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 18:35

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