Microsoft seemingly makes deleting 8.63GB impossible after Windows 11 24H2 update

Since updating Microsoft's latest Windows 11 feature update, version 24H2, several users are reporting that they are unable to perform a Windows Update Cleanup that allows users to free up space. As such, seemingly every user updating to Windows 11 24H2 is finding that they are not able to proceed with deleting 8.63GB of past cumulative updates, a thing that was possible on previous versions of the OS.

For example, an Eleven Forum member thecaretaker who started a thread on the issue, says:

Just updated to Win 11 Pro 24H2. All is working fine. However, I've got an additional 8.63GB of Update files that won't delete (see image).

I've run Component Store cleanup but it hasn't made any difference. Also ran it in safe mode.

When someone suggested that they run a Disk Cleanup, another user confirmed that it was not working either, as they wrote:

No, at least not on my PCs.

An entry labelled "Windows Update Cleanup" at 8.63GB remains. Disk Cleanup will not remove it.

I searched for a means to fix that. It appears that it's a bug, the Microsoft will have to fix.

The user and several others believe this may be a bug in Windows 11 24H2, but that is unlikely since almost every system exhibits this 'symptom.'

A user on My Digital Life forum suggests this may not be a bug after all and is how Microsoft intended it to be. They write:

Again, this is not really a problem/bug but the result of the current Updates development, the files need to be kept by the system.

The user is referring to the new Windows cumulative update delivery method that Microsoft introduced with Windows 11 24H2 and Server 2025. Called "Checkpoint Cumulative updates" (CCU), the company has essentially delivered these as checkpoints instead of the entire update since RTM, thus reducing the size of each update. As a consequence of that, it is certainly plausible why deleting this "8.63 GB" of unwanted data is not working.

However, this is simply speculation, and it is possible that the issue is indeed a bug that needs to be fixed. After all, the company had already confirmed a CCU-related problem that leads to the "Operation is not supported” error message.

Source

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