Unfortunately, it is noted by many users that some updates released for the popular Windows 7 OS, often (most often due to their flaws), can cause unexpected crashes and errors, not only the latest, but also obviously outdated. In addition, the updates themselves on the hard drive take up too much space. How to remove old updates of Windows 7 "Maximum", "Home" or any other modifications released later? By and large, this is not impossible. The only question is how appropriate such actions are. In most cases, this concerns cleaning up disk space when it is not enough for user needs or to prevent all kinds of conflicts.
Can I delete old updates of Windows 7 and similar versions of the system?
Speaking about the possibility of a complete removal of obsolete updates not needed by the user, it can be noted that you can really get rid of them. This will not cause harm to the system, especially since in all modifications for which the release of updates is constantly announced by Microsoft, such an opportunity is provided initially. The only trouble is that it is almost impossible to manually perform such operations.
When searching for updates, the files are placed in a special WinSxS directory, which is located directly in the main system directory on the C drive, but subfolders and files cannot be deleted in the Explorer in the usual way, if only because the user has access to them at least three times as an administrator happens to be completely blocked. How to remove old updates of Windows 7 "Home" or any other version of the OS, including earlier and later? An ordinary user can be offered at least three options for actions that can be performed independently.
How to remove old Windows 7 updates: the easiest method
So, for starters, you can use regular means of cleaning the system partition. In the "Explorer", through the PCM menu on the system disk, select the properties item and on the immediately presented tab of general parameters click the disk cleanup button.
After the system scans objects that you can safely get rid of, click the additional button to clear system files, and in the expanded list that appears, select the necessary items. The item of previous system installations or the item of updates is responsible for removing updates. after that, it will just remain to confirm the completion of the cleaning. The process can take a lot of time, so you have to wait.
Selective removal of updates by means of the system
Now a few words on how to remove old Windows 7 updates selectively. To do this, you can use a no less simple technique.
In the “Control Panel” (control), select the program and component section, in the window with the list of applications, go to the item for viewing installed updates, which is located on the left menu, scroll through the list, mark the package that is no longer needed (all names of system updates begin with the letter “ "), Then just click the delete button at the top. Upon completion of all actions, do not forget to reboot the system.
Using uninstall programs
Now let's see how to remove old Windows 7 update files using automated applications. For example, take the iObit Uninstaller program, which is considered one of the most powerful in its class.
In the application menu, go to the Windows updates section (it can be called either from the list on the left or by clicking the button in the upper right), then sort the packages by the installation date, mark the ones that are not needed and click the uninstall button. The use of such utilities is convenient in that you can get rid of updates in batch mode, that is, delete several pieces at a time. It is impossible to perform such an operation using standard system tools (updates will have to be deleted one at a time).
Note: in the second and third way, you can also get rid of unnecessary self-installing Office packages.
How to completely disable the installation of updates?
How to remove old Windows 7 updates, figured out. But the main problem consists precisely in the fact that with the automatic automatic installation of updates activated, the system will still search for and install them, regardless of whether the user needs them or not. Here you can do two things. In the first case, you can activate manual search in the Update Center and exclude unnecessary packages from the list (this is especially necessary to prevent the installation of failed updates that cause critical errors).
In the second option, you can disable the "Update Center" at all by using the services section (services.msc), where you need to stop the services indicated in the image above and set the manual start in the start type field. Again, after saving the options, it is advisable to perform a complete restart of the computer (not logging out of the system or account, namely rebooting).
Note: to disable the installation of updates for office applications only, it is enough to deactivate the point of searching and installing updates for other Microsoft software products.
Total
In principle, the problem of how to remove old Windows 7 updates can be solved by creating special keys in the system registry and then starting an automated process from the command console or using PowerShell tools, but such procedures for an ordinary user may seem too complicated in development, therefore, they were not considered. In addition, you can do troubles in the registry, moreover, such that the whole system will refuse to work (if anyone does not know, all changes are saved automatically, and there is absolutely no way to undo or roll back the performed actions). But, returning to the main question, we can say that the three users listed above will be enough for ordinary users, as they say, with their heads. In addition, it is the application of such techniques, no matter how you try, that you will not inflict damage to the functionality of the system itself, even though almost all of the updates produced are aimed at eliminating security problems.