A brand new Home windows 11 replace By covertly commandeering vast amounts of storage capacity from millions of users, a sneaky culprit is wreaking chaos on the digital landscape, falsely boasting about an impressive expansion in available drive space. The latest Windows 11 update, version 24H2, was released just over a week ago; yet, users are already reporting that the massive cache left behind by the update is consuming their drive space, with the added complication being its intractable nature – unable to be deleted?
Despite the widespread adoption of Windows 11 surpassing that of Windows 10, numerous problems persist for gamers using Windows 11 PCs. The reality is that video games are designed with Windows as the primary consideration, given its widespread adoption; consequently, the best gaming PCs typically require a Windows operating system to run the latest games smoothly. As Windows 10 support nears its expiration date, the latest Microsoft OS becomes the sole viable option for gamers, rendering updates like this increasingly problematic.
According to Windows’ metrics, the troublesome cache data amounts to approximately 8.63 GB in size. The information constitutes part of what Windows collectively refers to as “cleanup” data from preceding Windows updates. When disk space is limited, as little as 8.63 GB can cause problems. The real concern, though, is that there’s no way to remove data at this point.
Despite attempts to clear the cache via Windows settings or using other maintenance tools like Disk Cleanup, it remains an insurmountable challenge. You cannot manually remove all remnants of a previous Windows version, including deleted files and registry keys, even if you delete the Windows.old folder created after a significant update.
Fortunately, Microsoft has been made aware of this issue, which may be nothing more than an inconvenient glitch. Microsoft announced in its Windows Update feedback that the cache was introduced as a result of “checkpoint updates,” a feature designed for Windows 11 to facilitate more incremental updates and reduce their overall size.
When installing a fresh checkpoint replacement, subsequent updates will only include new or removed components. While the overall setup time for Windows updates has decreased, making large-scale updates less frequent in theory?
This cache was designed to support the new checkpoint replacement system, but its functionality may be compromised since Microsoft has already outlined plans to revamp usage in a future update. A shortage of storage space in the cupboard may prompt customers to consider upgrading their PC’s memory, rather than waiting for further degradation.
If the setup process seems interminable, you may consider installing Windows on a modern device, but this decision should only be made when storage space permits. If you’re running low on storage space in any other case, consider releasing some space by moving files elsewhere or upgrade to a more recent and larger drive as part of your Windows setup.
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