Is it safe to delete the Software Distribution folder for Windows 11? Normally, the answer is yes. Windows will recreate the Software Distribution folder and re-download the system update file to this folder. For more details, please refer to the following content provided by the official MiniTool website.

What is a Software Distribution folder?

The Software Distribution folder is located in the Windows directory and is used to temporarily save files that may require Windows Update (WU) to be installed. Therefore, Windows updates require the Software Distribution folder and are maintained by WUAgent.

The Software Distribution folder is in the same detailed location in Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7, and its address is C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution . Its size may vary depending on the status of your computer.

If your computer is ready to install system updates (update files have been downloaded), the Software Distribution folder will usually be larger than usual. Otherwise, its size is smaller.

Is it safe to delete the Software Distribution folder for Windows 11?

Typically, after all the files required to install Windows Update are already in use, they can be safely deleted from the Software Distribution folder. Even if you accidentally delete them before installing, they will be automatically re-downloaded. As for the entire folder, it's OK to delete it, as it will be recreated automatically.

However, usually most people don't touch the Software Distribution folder. They will only consider deleting this folder if they find that the system's Datastore and Download folders are out of sync, causing Windows updates to not work.

Additionally, the Datastore folder contains system update history files. If you choose to delete this folder, update history details will be lost. In addition, the next time you perform a Windows update, the detection time will be longer.

If it's just a matter of size, you can take advantage of MiniTool Partition Wizard's Disk Space Analyzer feature to sort large files that take up a lot of disk space and delete all of them instead of deleting the Software Distribution folder to get a small amount of free space.

How to delete the Software Distribution folder for Windows 11?

Before finding and manually deleting the Software Distribution folder, it is recommended that you stop the Windows Update service and the background smart transfer service to prevent further files from appearing. To do this, please follow the instructions below.

Open the Windows 11 command platform (CMD or PowerShell), enter the following commands one by one, and press Enter after each command line.

net stop wuauserv

net stop bits

You can then navigate to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder and delete all of its contents.

If you can't delete certain files because they are in use, just restart your computer, rerun the above commands, and then delete the files again.

After successfully deleting the files in the Software Distribution folder, you need to use the following command to restart the Windows Update service and the background intelligent transfer service.

net start wuauserv

net start bits

Finally, the Software Distribution folder is cleared. This can also solve some system update-related failures, such as Windows update not working, Windows update installation failed, Windows update stuck, etc.

How to rename a Software Distribution folder for Windows 11?

Additionally, you can rename the Software Distribution folder. The following steps rename the folder to SoftwareDistribution.old .

1. Start the command prompt as administrator.
2. Enter net stop wuauserv and click OK .
3. Enter net stop bits and press Enter .
4. Enter rename C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old and confirm.
5. Enter net start wuauserv and select OK .
6. Enter net start bits and click Enter .

You can also boot into Windows Safe Mode and rename the Software Distribution folder to SoftwareDistribution.old or SoftwareDistribution.bak .

Recommended Windows 11 Assistant Software

The new and powerful Windows 11 will bring you many benefits. At the same time, it can also bring some unexpected damage, such as data loss. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you use powerful and reliable programs like MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up important files before or after upgrading to Win11, which will help you automatically protect your growing data as planned!

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