Microsoft confirms uncluttering error in Windows 11 24H2

Microsoft has now publicly acknowledged that after the installation of Windows 11 24H2 and a subsequent hard disk clean-up with on-board tools, larger amounts of data that have not been deleted are still displayed. The problem is therefore purely cosmetic.

In the Windows Release Health notes, Microsoft's developers write that "after using the Windows Disk Cleanup app, an incorrect amount of disk space may be displayed that can be cleared in the 'Windows Update Cleanup' category".

Microsoft confirms incorrect display

"Please note that this is a reporting error," Microsoft explains further. If the "Windows Update Cleanup" is selected and run for the first time, some or all files in this category – for example 15 GByte – are correctly removed and the associated hard disk space is freed up as expected.

However, after the initial run, the tool may incorrectly show a certain amount of disk space in the 'Windows Update Cleanup' category that can still be cleared, for example 88 GB. This incorrect amount of disk space is reported even though it was already freed up in the initial run.

The Redmond programmers state that they are working on a solution. They intend to provide further information as soon as it is available. Until then, users of Windows 11 24H2 must blindly assume that the disk cleanup was thorough and only displayed incorrect values.

Last weekend, it became known that after installing the 24H2 update for Windows 11, a significant amount of unallocated disk space is displayed in the Windows system cleanup tools after the system has been cleaned up. In general, this involved 8.63 GB of unreleased memory from the Windows update cache. The first suspicion suggested a connection with the checkpoint updates now used by Microsoft, which are intended to speed up the installation of updates and their download by referring to a more recent system snapshot.

(dmk)