I’m always on the lookout for ways to reclaim space without compromising my apps or personal files. And in my quest to do that, I’ve uncovered several system folders wasting storage. One of the most surprising culprits I stumbled upon recently was a stash of hidden Delivery Optimization files.
I knew what these files were for, but I never expected them to consume nearly 20GB of space. Thankfully, reclaiming that storage space wasn’t difficult, and I even managed to stop Windows from creating more Delivery Optimization files in the future.
What Delivery Optimization files are and why they take so much space
The secret folder behind your shrinking free space
Delivery Optimization is a Windows feature that speeds up updates and app downloads from the Microsoft Store. Instead of pulling everything directly from Microsoft’s servers, Delivery Optimization allows your PC to look for other sources. These include PCs on your local network and even those on the internet.
Your PC can grab pieces of an update from other computers that already have them. At the same time, your machine might share parts of its own downloaded updates with others. As you can imagine, these make updates faster and reduce the strain on Microsoft’s servers.
To make all of that work, Windows needs to store chunks of update data on your drive temporarily. These files are meant to be temporary, but they often grow much larger, depending on how big the updates are and how fast your internet connection is.
Windows keeps them around in case they’re needed again. If you have a fast connection or downloaded multiple updates in a short period, Windows may cache a lot of them. On the other hand, if you haven’t installed updates in a while, you may find Delivery Optimization only taking up a few megabytes.
Clearing Delivery Optimization cache is easy
Disk Cleanup to the rescue
Since Delivery Optimization files live inside the Windows Update cache, most folks never notice it until the storage runs low or they start digging through Disk Cleanup. This can be a problem if your PC has low storage capacity, say 256GB or 512GB, and you’re already trying your best to juggle games, photos, and apps to stay under the limit.
To clear Delivery Optimization files, open the Disk Cleanup tool using the search menu. Select your system drive, hit OK, and wait for Windows to scan for files. In the list that appears, look for the Delivery Optimization Files entry. Select it, choose OK, and hit Delete Files to confirm.
Once the cache is gone, you’ll instantly get the storage back. Of course, deleting these files won’t break any updates or cause problems in any way. Windows will simply rebuild whatever it needs the next time you download updates.
The permanent fix to prevent the drive from filling again
Stop Delivery Optimization from returning
Clearing the Delivery Optimization cache feels great, but you don’t want to do it manually every few weeks. There’s also the issue of bandwidth. Delivery Optimization can upload update data to other devices, and if it’s left unrestricted, it can affect your internet usage.
The good thing is that you can control how the Delivery Optimization feature behaves. You can set limits for both uploads and downloads, so the feature plays nicely with your connection.
The fix for the storage, however, is to turn off Delivery Optimization files entirely. This stops Windows from caching huge piles of update data in the first place. Head to Settings > Windows Update > Delivery Optimization. Finally, turn off Allow downloads from other devices.
Once you do this, Windows will only download updates from Microsoft and no longer share chunks of data with other PCs. If you’re curious about how active the feature has been in your system, expand the Activity monitor menu. This will show you exactly how much data your PC has uploaded or downloaded through Delivery Optimization.
Don’t forget about the Windows Update files
One more place to reclaim gigabytes
Delivery Optimization files are only a piece of the storage puzzle. Windows Updates itself also leaves behind a trail of temporary files after installing updates. These can include old update packages, leftover components, and other bits that are no longer needed once our system is fully updated.
To free this up, you can delete the SoftwareDistribution folder, which is where Windows Update keeps most of its temporary files. Don’t worry, Windows will recreate that folder automatically the next time it checks for updates.
Alternatively, you can set up Storage Sense to automate the process. This will allow Windows to take care of all the old update files along with other temporary files. You can configure Storage Sense to run daily, weekly, monthly, or only when the storage space is running low.
For anyone using a laptop with only 512GB of storage, managing space is always a challenge. So while 20GB may not sound like a lot, it gives me much-needed breathing room to work with.
