New Windows Update Cleanup Tool: Recover Disk Space.

Good news. Now MS has released a new option in the Disk Cleanup tool called “Windows Update Cleanup”. This is for Windows 7 SP1. Windows 8.1 already has it.

You just might regain a few gigs of disk space.

So why can’t you just delete stuff manually? Why a special tool? Well, because some files are needed just in case a system file gets corrupted or you need to roll back a Windows Update.

The tool isn’t called that in the update. It’s known as KB 2852386 and adds the ability to cleanup all the obsolete updates in the WinSxS folder. It's a "recommended" update but not "critical," so you might not have installed it yet.

You can download it separately also, here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2852386/en-us .

Once it’s installed, you run Disk Cleanup and click the “Clean up system files” button to find the Windows Update Cleanup option, but running this cleanup will prevent you from uninstalling any updates you have currently applied. You can manually download and install previous update versions if you ever need to rollback:

• The Windows Update Cleanup option is available only when the Disk Cleanup wizard detects Windows updates that you do not need on the computer.
• To enable you to roll back to previous updates, updates are stored in the WinSxS store even after they are superseded by later updates. Therefore, after you run the Disk Cleanup wizard, you may be unable to roll back to a superseded update. If you want to roll back to a superseded update that the Disk Cleanup wizard deletes, you can manually install the update. - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2852386/en-us

You can read more on MS’s Technet blog.

If after today's update you don't see the Windows Update Cleanup as in the picture above, don't worry. It's there. Just do the following:

Then you'll see: 

Finally, you'll get this:

Then you just click "OK". You'll get a confirmation window asking you, "Are you sure?". If you wish to, click "Yes".

My thanks to Hankers for catching this!

By the way, if I choose to use it, I'll free up 7.44 gigabytes.