How to uninstall the latest windows 8.1 updates. How to remove a service pack if the system cannot be booted

Here, in order:

1. The size of the component store as seen by Explorer, i.e. disregarding hard links inside WinSxS.
2. Real size of component store subject to hard links (excluding links to the Windows folder), including:

• Shared files with Windows folder. These files are necessary for the system to work and are by no means superfluous. In my example, they make up 87% of the storage size, but the more updates are installed, the lower this percentage.
• Backups and disabled components... These files are stored in case of problems with updated features or to enable roles or features. They can be conditionally considered superfluous, since they are not critical for the current operation of the system.
• Cache and temporary files... These files are needed for the maintenance system to run quickly, but are not absolutely necessary for Windows to function.

I can directly see how your hands itch to clear the storage and free up space :)

How to empty the WinSxS folder in Windows 10, 8.1 and 8

Starting with Windows 8, the OS has three cleaning methods.

You can manually clean up the component store with one command.

Dism.exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup

This is the fastest way to perform optimization (after it you will not achieve anything in the following two ways).

Disk Cleanup utility

Andrey Bayatakov, thanks for the reminder of this method!

Type in a command prompt running as administrator. Windows' built-in disk cleanup utility will show you how much space you save by deleting Windows update files.

Basically, the utility does the same as the key / StartComponentCleanup... However, it is very frivolous in estimating the freed up space, and in my experiments the error was measured in hundreds of megabytes, and in both directions.

Scheduled task

Windows will clean up the winsxs folder on a schedule using Microsoft - Windows - Servicing - StartComponentCleanup.

The specific command is not visible because the cleanup is implemented by the COM object handler. And the absence of triggers indicates that the job is running as part of the ubiquitous automated maintenance. By running the task from the scheduler or command line, you achieve nearly same effect as DISM command with key / StartComponentCleanup... The differences are as follows:

• Updates installed in the last 30 days are ignored.
• There is an hour pause, and all files may not be cleared.

After cleaning up, you can analyze the repository again and evaluate the changes.

As you can see, in my case cleaning 10 packages saved 60MB, which is not that much on a folder scale. However, you can clean up some more :)

How to remove all old versions of components from WinSxS folder in Windows 10 and 8.1

In the days of Windows XP, the question was very popular whether it was possible to delete the $ NTUninstallKBxxxxxx $ folders from the Windows folder. Remember this?

Windows 8.1 introduced a similar feature, although it is implemented in a completely different way due to global differences in the servicing systems for 8.1 and XP.

Command to delete

Starting in Windows 8.1, the parameter / StartComponentCleanup there is an additional key / ResetBase, with which you can remove all previous versions of the components. This key is not involved in the scheduled job.

Attention! Removing previous versions of components prevents you from removing installed updates and service packs, but does not block the installation of future updates.

This warning is not at all on duty, if we recall the recent error 0xc0000005 after KB2859537, from which the Runet cried bitterly. Anyway, the magic command is:

Dism.exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup / ResetBase

Obviously, the gain in disk space depends both on the number of updates cleaned and on the volume of components replaced by them. In my example, I managed to free another 24MB.

What happens when you uninstall all previous versions of components

Compressing components in WinSxS folder (secret knowledge)

However, there is practically no information in the official documentation that compression is used in order to save disk space for the component store in Windows 8 and higher. I will highlight a few points known to me:

1. Compression is applied to files not used by the operating system... These include previous versions of components and disabled components. This, apparently, explains the not so significant gain from removing previous versions with the parameter / ResetBase.
2. Differential compression is used... According to unconfirmed information already confirmed in Windows 8.1, differential compression is used to compress replaced components.
3. The savings in disk space can be significant in some scenarios. For example, on a Windows Server Core 2012 R2 Preview installation, compression frees up about 20% of space when you exclude paging and hibernation files from the equation. Savings come from compressing the components of the disabled server roles.

In the article, where all the technical details are collected, I described the different compression mechanisms for Windows 8 and 8.1+.

What are the changes in Windows 8 and 8.1 servicing

Of course, only Microsoft can give an exact answer to this question, so I'll just share my vision of the situation.

Server OS

It is difficult to imagine modern infrastructure without virtualization technologies, the benefits of which are directly related to the efficient use of system resources. This fully applies to disk space, which is never too much.

Removing unused server roles in Windows Server 2012 helps IT pros manage disk space more efficiently. For those who do not know about this feature or do not consider it appropriate to use it, compression of unused role components in Windows Server 2012 R2 will help.

Client OS

By the time Windows 7 was released, the cost of 1GB of hard drives was so low that the WinSxS folder only caused headaches for comrades with little you know what. SSDs were already on the scene, however, and Windows servicing did not fit well with their modest size.

It would seem that by the time Windows 8 was released, a 128GB solid-state drive was no longer something out of the ordinary, but a new trouble fell on the developers of the service system - tablets, including their own Surface.

Indeed, all modern tablets on the Clover Trail are, at best, equipped with a 64GB disk. And in the more popular low-end models, after deducting the recovery partition, about 25GB remains, which is not enough for more or less long-term operation of Windows.

In Windows 8, cleaning up component backups aims to make more efficient use of small tablet disk space, and in Windows 8.1, uninstalling previous versions provides an alternate airfield in the most severe cases.

Discussion and survey

This entry is a good reason for you to express everything that is painful about the Windows component store :) The survey is intended to reveal a quantitative alignment, and write in the comments if the growth of the WinSxS folder is causing you problems... If it does, describe them and provide a link to the full screen screenshot of the diskmgmt.msc snap.

In Windows 8.1 (Windows 8), with default settings, system updates are downloaded and installed automatically. Once a month or more often, in case of special circumstances, for example, to urgently install a patch on a system that covers a vulnerability.

Operating system updates mainly address security holes that have been identified during the operation of Windows. Installing updates improves the overall security of the operating system. In addition, patches are installed in the OS through an update to improve system performance.

For some reason, users refuse Windows updates by disabling this feature on the computer. Basically, the reasons for refusing to find, receive and install Windows updates are as follows:

• after installing updates, there may be problems with the operation of the operating system and programs;
• with a limited Internet tariff, receiving updates leads to the consumption of a significant amount of traffic;
• users are afraid of losing Windows activation after installing the update;
• post-installation updates take up a lot of disk space.

Therefore, users have questions: how to disable updates on Windows 8, or how to disable updates on Windows 8.1. You can solve this problem yourself by changing the system settings.

On these operating systems, the process for disabling the update is the same. Therefore, I have combined these operating systems in one article. It is clear from the OS names that Windows 8.1 is an improved version of the Windows 8 operating system (support for this operating system has been discontinued by Microsoft).

In this article, I will tell you how to disable the Windows 8 update in automatic mode, and how to disable the Windows 8.1 update permanently, using the example of Windows 8.1 Update (in Windows 8, everything happens the same way), using two different methods using the operating system.

How to disable automatic updates in Windows 8.1

In automatic mode, the operating system independently searches for, downloads and installs updates to the user's computer through Windows Update.

To disable automatic system updates, make the following settings:

1. Access Computer Settings from the Start menu in Windows1, or from the list of applications in Windows 8.
2. In the All Control Panel Items window, click on Windows Update.
3. In the Windows Update window, click the Configure Settings link.
4. In the "Settings" window, in the "Important updates" setting, select the "Do not check for updates (not recommended)" option.
5. Then click on the "OK" button.

Additionally, you can uncheck the "Recommended Updates" and "Microsoft Update" settings.

To download and install system updates manually, select the option "Search for updates, but the decision to download and install is made by me." In this case, you independently decide which of the proposed updates must be installed on your computer.

How to disable Windows 8.1 update permanently

Another way to disable Windows 8 update is by stopping the service responsible for updating the system.

To disable Windows Update Service, follow these steps:

1. Enter "Control Panel", select "Administrative Tools".
2. In the "Administration" window, double-click the left mouse button on the "Services" shortcut.

1. In the Services window, find the Windows Update service.

1. Right-click on the Windows Update service and select Properties from the context menu.
2. In the "Properties: Windows Update (Local Computer)" window, in the "General" tab, in the "Startup type" setting, select the "Disabled" option.
3. In the "Status" setting, click on the "Stop" button.
4. Then click on the "Apply" and "OK" buttons in turn.

Please note that when installing Microsoft applications, the Windows Update service may be enabled by the system. Therefore, after installing such applications, you must again disable the operating system update service.

To enable Windows 8 update, in the "Properties: Windows Update (Local Computer)" window, select the startup type: "Automatic (Delayed Start)" or "Manual".

Disable automatic updates with Windows Update Blocker

The free Windows Update Blocker has a feature to disable the automatic update service of the Windows operating system. The Windows Update Blocker program is translated into Russian, the application does not require installation on a PC, it runs from a folder.

Windows Update Blocker must be downloaded from the developer's official website.

Windows Update Blocker download

Go through the following steps:

1. First you need to unpack the ZIP archive on your computer.
2. Open the Wub folder and then run the Wub.exe application.
3. In the Windows Update Blocker application window, you must enable the "Disable Updates" button, immediately after that, a checkbox will be automatically installed in the "Protect Service Settings" item.
4. To turn off system updates, click on the "Apply" button.

1. The Windows Update service is disabled and the service status indication changes to red.

You can find out about the status of the update service using the "Menu" button. In the context menu that opens, click in turn on the "Windows Update" and "Windows Services" items to see the results of the program.

To enable the automatic Windows update service, you need to activate the "Enable Updates" option in the Windows Update Blocker window, and then click on the "Apply" button.

Conclusions of the article

In the operating system Windows 8.1 or Windows 8, the user can disable automatic system updates, or permanently disable the installation of updates for Windows. Windows Update Blocker disables the Windows Update service, preventing it from receiving system updates.

How to disable Windows updates in Windows Update Blocker (video)

Good day. This week, the site received a new record for traffic - 5407 unique visitors per day, for which thank you very much. Although I rarely write lately, the site is still growing :)

Now let's talk about our problem. What is this WinSxS folder? This folder is where the Windows updates and components file are stored. Why does she weigh so much? Hmm ... In fact, it weighs much less :) Files from the Windows, System32 folders are projected into this folder with the help of, which is why all file managers show such a large size - they do not see the difference between real files and symbolic links. Based on the same, it is highly discouraged to go into this folder through the explorer and try to delete everything manually. There are several standard tools to help you clean this folder safely and efficiently. And by the way, as updates are installed, it is constantly growing, so it is recommended to periodically repeat these steps. By the way, I recommend using method # 2.

Method number 1. Cleaning Windows updates using the Disk Cleanup utility (also works on Windows 7 SP1 with the KB2852386 update installed).

A very simple way and does not require any decisions from the user. But the evaluation of files works mediocre, makes mistakes both up and down. But this is not very important to us.

1) We need the Run utility, so press the key combination Win + R and enter cleanmgr into the window that opens.

3) We are waiting for the assessment of free space and press the button "Clear system files".

4) We put a tick on "Clean up Windows updates". And click OK. The process of cleaning the update files will start.

But this way you can delete only part of the files, more precise cleaning can be done using method # 2.

Method number 2. Clean up Windows updates, disabled features, and the Windows cache stored in the WinSxS folder using the DISM utility. (Recommend)

This method allows you to clean not only update files, but also all other garbage from the WinSxS folder.

1) Open the command line as administrator, for this we press the key combination Win + X and choose “ Command Line (Admin)«.

As you can see, 4.77GB of everything occupied is in the Windows folder and in no way are superfluous, since these are files necessary for the system to work. But here's the backups (needed in case you don't boot the system after installing the updates) and the cache with temporary files can be cleaned. Well, we carefully read the penultimate line " Cleaning of the component store is recommended: Yes". So let's move on to the next step.

Dism.exe / Online / Cleanup-Image / StartComponentCleanup

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As you know, many users of Windows 7 and 8.1 have recently received a message about the availability of its upgrade to version 10.

Despite the fact that it is possible to use this service at will, the icon with the update after such a message was installed on the computer of everyone who has a licensed OS and periodically appears, interfering and annoying during work. But this is still half the trouble, since, together with this icon, there was also new folderhaving name $ WINDOWS. ~ BT, used for easier transition to the new version and the data contained in it are not deleted... This phenomenon is not very pleasant for those users who do not want to apply the innovation, especially when the system disk is almost full of the necessary data, because the folder weight is quite large, already 3 GB.

In addition, all this can cause problematic situations in the functioning of a PC or laptop, which is also not very good. Therefore, the best option would be to produce removal of unnecessary update, and it is possible to do this in several ways.

It is worth noting that these methods work for rollback any system update.

Removal via update center

The first way, which is the simplest, is to destroy the component with Parameters and Control panels... To perform, the following operations will be required:

After all the events, a list of all versions that were installed on the computer will open. Among them are selected unnecessary updates and click again " Delete". Further, this action is confirmed and waited for its completion.

It is also possible to get to the list of updates using Control Panel, in which using the section " Programs and Features", A side menu opens, where you select" View installed updates».

Using the command line

The second way to get rid of updates is to use the command line. To implement the process, the following actions will be required:

Windows updates are, of course, an important process in the operation of this operating system, necessary for its full functioning - to ensure the correct operation of programs, security and improvement of the system as a whole. But in practice, unfortunately, there were more than once cases of unfavorable results of system updates. Windows performance varies immediately after installation and after months of use. The constantly increasing number of system updates slows down over time. Windows updates can result in settings failures, problems with language switching, pop-up notifications about errors in the operation of system services, etc.

From time to time Microsoft officially declares this or that update to be unsuccessful. And, of course, they are taking measures to correct it. But not always the problem arising from updates can be solved automatically, without user intervention and manual removal of the problematic update package.

How to manually uninstall Windows 8 / 8.1 updates? How to prevent a problematic system update from installing again? We will understand this in more detail below.

Remove problematic Windows update

Tap the top-bottom right side of the screen to reveal the Metro charms and enter the key query "Programs and Features" in the search box. Select this section of system settings from the list provided.

Alternative for Windows 8.1: this version implements a slightly improved version of the "Start" button, and by calling the context menu on it, we will see the command to open the control panel.

Once in the Windows 8.1 control panel, select the "Programs and Features" section.

In any of the ways you will be taken to this section of system settings.

In the section "Programs and Features" we are interested in the subsection "Viewing installed updates." Click on his link.

In the next window, you will see a list of installed Windows updates.

Here you can track the problematic update by its number (КВххххххх) and delete it. If you do not know the update number, you can analyze exactly when the problem occurred with the system by regrouping the updates in the list by the date of installation, and then remove all updates starting from that date.

To remove a problematic Windows update, select it in the list, open the context menu and click the only command "Delete".

After uninstalling an update, in most cases a reboot will be required to bring the system back to what it was before installing the problematic update.

Preventing the reinstallation of a problematic Windows update

Removing the problematic Windows update is only half the solution. After all, it can re-establish itself automatically. To prevent this, you need to make changes to the Windows Update settings.

Open the section of system settings "Windows Update". For this:

Or we enter a key query in the search field of the Metro interface and select this section in the results;

Or open the control panel using the context menu on the Windows 8.1 Start button and select the section we need in the list of control panel items.

As a rule, Windows is installed with the specified settings for automatically downloading and installing system updates. An exception may be pirated builds of the system, where builders initially change the settings and functionality of Windows. Nevertheless, in most cases we will see a picture of total control of the situation by the system itself.

Click "Configure Settings" to make changes.

We will change the automatic update installation parameter set up to this point to the one that you control - let the system automatically download updates, but we will only make the decision to install it on our own.

In the future, the system will only download updates, you will need to install them manually. But in this case, you will have a choice - to install only important updates and not litter the system with various optional nonsense.

You also need to manually install system updates through Windows Update. Periodically check this section of system settings to install important updates yourself.

If you need to prevent the reinstallation of that problematic update that caused you a lot of trouble, you can hide it. On this update, open the context menu and click the "Hide update" command.

In the same way, you can later hide other updates - not important, but simply recommended, so as not to clutter up the system.