• Patch Lady Posts – Windows update temp files

    Posted on February 28, 2018 at 21:04 CST by • Comment in the Forums

    I’m often called to remote into computers for friends, family and especially co-workers to take a look at what ails them. Tonight I had an interesting case on a Windows 7 computer that is normally well behaved – so well behaved that normally I don’t look at it.  The initial symptom of the machine was that it lost the remote desktop/Rdgateway credentials that the person used to remote into their office, so I was tasked to help set them back up. While there I took a look at the computer to make sure it was behaving itself.

    Well.

    It wasn’t behaving itself at all.

    Opening up merely Windows explorer showcased what the problem was: The entire C drive was full.  Entirely and utterly full. And full hard drives start doing very strange things. Like losing rdp entries.

    So first I needed to gain enough hard drive space to get some tools on the system to see where in the world – and what in the world – was taking up so much space.  To gain space I went into services, disabled Windows update, then went to the c:\windows folder and deleted the contents of the software distribution folder.  This gained about a gig of space, enough to then give me room to install TreeSizeFree (any other tool that you would normally use to be able to scan a c drive for used space will work).  I launched it as admin, let it scan the C drive and immediately saw my problem.  The C drive was filled to the brim with cab files built up in the c:\temp folder. In addition, there was a ton of older cbs (component based servicing) files stuck in the Windows>logs>cbs folder:

    Once I cleaned up both locations I had about 350 gigs free.

    As noted in this old forum post,  in the process of trying to zip up and make the cbs files, Windows was failing and placing cab files in the temp folder.

    The moral of this story?  Monitor the free space on your C drive.  Make it one of your monthly eyeball of health tasks on your machine.  Don’t just rely on drive cleanup and use file size tools to inventory where your drive space hogs are.  Especially on Windows 7 where it’s not getting service packs nor feature updates to “refresh” the platform, keep an eye out for unusual occurrences as a result of updating.

    Windows Patches/Security ,
DON'T MISS OUT!
Subscribe to the Free Newsletter
We promise not to spam you. Unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

View the Forum

  • Recent Replies
  • My Replies
  • My Active Topics
  • New Posts in the Last day
  • Private Messages
  • Knowledge Base
  • How to use the Forums
  • All Forums

    • Recent Topics

    My Profile

    April 2025
    S M T W T F S
     12345
    6789101112
    13141516171819
    20212223242526
    27282930  

    Remembering Woody

     

    Want to Advertise in the free newsletter? How about a gift subscription in honor of a birthday? Send an email to sb@askwoody.com to ask how.

    Mastodon profile for DefConPatch
    Mastodon profile for AskWoody

     

    Home • About • FAQ • Posts & Privacy • Forums • My Account
    Register • Free Newsletter • Plus Membership • Gift Certificates • MS-DEFCON Alerts

    Copyright ©2004-2025 by AskWoody Tech LLC. All Rights Reserved.