Delete windows 10 downloads

Would not it be nice if there was an easy to way to automatically delete unchanged files from the Downloads folder? With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version , Microsoft introduced a new option in Storage sense to automatically delete files from the Downloads folder.

The option, when turned on turned off by default , automatically deletes unchanged files from the Downloads folder after 30 days. This means that the feature deletes only files that have not seen any changes over the last 30 days.

The option comes in handy especially if you often download software from the web using a web browser. As you know, after installing a program, the setup file in the Downloads folder is of no use. Here is how to configure Windows 10 to automatically delete files from Downloads folder after 30 days. IMPORTANT: While this is a handy option, please remember that Windows 10 automatically deletes all files not just programs or any file type that have not seen any changes over the past 30 days.

So, you might lose important files. If you often save important files in Downloads folder which is not a good practice , this feature is not for you. Step 1: Open Settings app. Step 2: In the Storage sense section, turn on the Storage sense feature by moving the slider to on position.

Sometimes, the Windows Update page in Settings cannot be opened! To fix most of the Windows Update issues in Windows 10, usually it is enough to run the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter. When you run into issues though with updates, you may spend hours or even days figuring out what is going wrong. In such case, you can try to delete downloaded Windows Update files to start over.

The SoftwareDistribution folder contains files related to updates obtained via Windows Update, it is present on all versions of Windows. It could have a couple of hundreds megabytes of size. But if this folder is much larger, this indicates that some updates are corrupted. Restart Windows 10 and check for updates. See if this fixed your issues. The command net stop wuauserv stops the Windows Update service. The del command erases the contents of the Download folder and its subfolders.

By Daniel N. Daniel N. He is a professional librarian and an experienced tech and information literacy teacher. Tweet Share Email. Browsers Chrome Safari Firefox Microsoft. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up.

There was an error. Tell us why! More from Lifewire. Why delete Win download files? The reason could be that you are facing issues with Updates or these files eat up lots of disk space.

No matter whichever reason you have, this post can be helpful for you—it details how to delete Win download files in Windows To delete Windows 10 update files, you should complete two steps: stop the Windows Update service and delete everything in the Download folder.

When a file is in the downloads folder, it can take up unnecessary storage space. Also, as it shows the files you've downloaded, it could be a security or privacy risk. To clear your downloads folder or download history, click a link in the list below and follow the instructions.

To clear the files in the Downloads folder in Windows , follow the steps below. If there isn't a Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, you can restore it.