WinSxS pending deletes

Do you think I can safely delete $$deleteme* and other files in
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes
There are hundreds of them, currently using 300 MBs of disk space.
Most of the files are dated October 30.
I tried Windows Disk Cleanup (including System files), and CCleaner, and
rebooted, to no avail.

edevils wrote:
Do you think I can safely delete $$deleteme* and other files in
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes
There are hundreds of them, currently using 300 MBs of disk space.
Most of the files are dated October 30.
I tried Windows Disk Cleanup (including System files), and CCleaner, and
rebooted, to no avail.

If they're Pending, why aren't they getting
deleted on a reboot ? That's what Pending is for.
When you see the little circle of balls spinning
at shutdown or at startup, that's an opportunity
for the OS to do that sort of cleanup.

I'm not sure of the exact mechanism used, and
what process would have to "crash" to lose track
of that material.

Using the "PendingDeletes" keyword, Googling a solution
should not be too difficult.

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...etes-wont.html

Small hammer...

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...rnals/bb897556

Paul

edevils wrote on 12/7/2015 6:33 AM:
Do you think I can safely delete $$deleteme* and other files in
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes
There are hundreds of them, currently using 300 MBs of disk space.
Most of the files are dated October 30.
I tried Windows Disk Cleanup (including System files), and CCleaner, and
rebooted, to no avail.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2795190

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions,
including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog. - Doug
Larson

On 07/12/2015 17:52, Paul wrote:
....snip...

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...etes-wont.html


Small hammer...

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...rnals/bb897556


Thanks, but... when I try to run pendmove.exe from command prompt as
admin...

PendMove v1.2
Copyright (C) 2004-2013 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - wwww.sysinternals.com
No pending file rename operations registered.


movefile.exe instead gives a pop-up message:
"This app can't run on your PC"
and
"Access is denied"


However, if you mean that I can safely delete the contents of
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\
(which by the way includes an InFlight directory too, with 132
Megabytes, other than the PendingDeletes folder with some 300 MB)
I can remove them from linux or booting in macrium reflect PE.

edevils wrote:
On 07/12/2015 17:52, Paul wrote:
...snip...

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...etes-wont.html



Small hammer...

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...rnals/bb897556


Thanks, but... when I try to run pendmove.exe from command prompt as
admin...

PendMove v1.2
Copyright (C) 2004-2013 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - wwww.sysinternals.com
No pending file rename operations registered.


movefile.exe instead gives a pop-up message:
"This app can't run on your PC"
and
"Access is denied"


However, if you mean that I can safely delete the contents of
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\
(which by the way includes an InFlight directory too, with 132
Megabytes, other than the PendingDeletes folder with some 300 MB)
I can remove them from linux or booting in macrium reflect PE.


I tried Movefile.exe on my Win10 Pro x64 machine, and

1) From an un-elevated command prompt error, I got "Error 5".
Which is the usual permissions error.

2) Using an Adminstrator command prompt, I asked the program
to remove its Eula.txt ,

movefile.exe Eula.txt ""

and it gave a message implying it would be done.

No sign of any "this app can't run". Maybe you had a 32 bit OS
and that's how our setups differ ?

Hmmm. Did you unpack the ZIP first ? It should be
unpacked somewhere, so that you can run it from
an Administrator Command Prompt window.

Paul

On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 12:33:53 +0100, edevils
wrote:

Do you think I can safely delete $$deleteme* and other files in
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes
There are hundreds of them, currently using 300 MBs of disk space.
Most of the files are dated October 30.
I tried Windows Disk Cleanup (including System files), and CCleaner, and
rebooted, to no avail.

I managed to get rid of all those pesky files .
1 : from an elevated prompt type : shutdown /r /o
2 : during the reboot you will be able to start with a command prompt.
3 : E: was the drive to tweak ( in my PC )
4 : navigate to e:\windows\winsxs\temp
5 : you will be able to remove every folder: RD PendingDeletes /s
6 : re-create them empty ( apparently they are needed)
7 : I had 4 folders : I did a cleanup of every folder listed there.
8 : exit and reboot normally.

Sandro wrote:
On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 12:33:53 +0100, edevils
wrote:

Do you think I can safely delete $$deleteme* and other files in
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes
There are hundreds of them, currently using 300 MBs of disk space.
Most of the files are dated October 30.
I tried Windows Disk Cleanup (including System files), and CCleaner, and
rebooted, to no avail.

I managed to get rid of all those pesky files .
1 : from an elevated prompt type : shutdown /r /o
2 : during the reboot you will be able to start with a command prompt.
3 : E: was the drive to tweak ( in my PC )
4 : navigate to e:\windows\winsxs\temp
5 : you will be able to remove every folder: RD PendingDeletes /s
6 : re-create them empty ( apparently they are needed)
7 : I had 4 folders : I did a cleanup of every folder listed there.
8 : exit and reboot normally.

I don't think it's a lack of recipes for removal.

More a curiosity as to why it failed.

My PendingRenames folder has ten items in it from Nov.20,
which would be the day 10586 came in on the test machine.

My PendingDeletes folder was completely empty.

(I'm looking at a VHD copy of my Win10 machine
locally here, to check the folder contents.)

If I had to guess, an upgrade install cleans out those
folders, so when 10586 comes in, and the system
moves everything to Windows.old, those items should
go with Windows.old . A free cleanup. If 300 items
have accumulated since 10586, it would suggest
the Pending system is completely broken. Checking
the dates of the files, should give some idea where
they came from.

If you clean it, and it fills up again, you would
be unhappy.

Paul

On 08/12/2015 01:09, Paul wrote:
edevils wrote:
On 07/12/2015 17:52, Paul wrote:
...snip...

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...etes-wont.html



Small hammer...

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...rnals/bb897556


Thanks, but... when I try to run pendmove.exe from command prompt as
admin...

PendMove v1.2
Copyright (C) 2004-2013 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - wwww.sysinternals.com
No pending file rename operations registered.


movefile.exe instead gives a pop-up message:
"This app can't run on your PC"
and
"Access is denied"


However, if you mean that I can safely delete the contents of
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\
(which by the way includes an InFlight directory too, with 132
Megabytes, other than the PendingDeletes folder with some 300 MB)
I can remove them from linux or booting in macrium reflect PE.


I tried Movefile.exe on my Win10 Pro x64 machine, and

1) From an un-elevated command prompt error, I got "Error 5".
Which is the usual permissions error.

2) Using an Adminstrator command prompt, I asked the program
to remove its Eula.txt ,

movefile.exe Eula.txt ""

and it gave a message implying it would be done.

No sign of any "this app can't run". Maybe you had a 32 bit OS
and that's how our setups differ ?

Hmmm. Did you unpack the ZIP first ? It should be
unpacked somewhere, so that you can run it from
an Administrator Command Prompt window.


Yes, I run it as administrator on a 64-bit Windows 10 Home 10.10586 system.
Unzipped.
I couldn't delete the eula.txt file either.
That's weird.

But I guess the correct error message is "Access is denied", while the
pop-up message is. well... mistaken

On 08/12/2015 04:00, Paul wrote:
Sandro wrote:
On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 12:33:53 +0100, edevils
wrote:

Do you think I can safely delete $$deleteme* and other files in
C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes
There are hundreds of them, currently using 300 MBs of disk space.
Most of the files are dated October 30.
I tried Windows Disk Cleanup (including System files), and CCleaner,
and rebooted, to no avail.

I managed to get rid of all those pesky files .
1 : from an elevated prompt type : shutdown /r /o
2 : during the reboot you will be able to start with a command prompt.
3 : E: was the drive to tweak ( in my PC )
4 : navigate to e:\windows\winsxs\temp
5 : you will be able to remove every folder: RD PendingDeletes /s
6 : re-create them empty ( apparently they are needed)
7 : I had 4 folders : I did a cleanup of every folder listed there.
8 : exit and reboot normally.

I don't think it's a lack of recipes for removal.

Indeed. I could easily remove them from outside Windows, but I would
like to know a) why on earth they are not automatically deleted and b)
is it 100% safe if I remove Temp contents manually? I haven't found a
clear Yes/No answer to that question yet. Microsoft recommends that we
do not mess around with the "magic" "Windows side-by-side" cache folder.
Still, they look like files that should have been deleted.

Thanks Sandro for sharing his method, anyway

More a curiosity as to why it failed.

My PendingRenames folder has ten items in it from Nov.20,
which would be the day 10586 came in on the test machine.

My PendingDeletes folder was completely empty.

(I'm looking at a VHD copy of my Win10 machine
locally here, to check the folder contents.)

If I had to guess, an upgrade install cleans out those
folders, so when 10586 comes in, and the system
moves everything to Windows.old, those items should
go with Windows.old . A free cleanup. If 300 items
have accumulated since 10586, it would suggest
the Pending system is completely broken. Checking
the dates of the files, should give some idea where
they came from.

If you clean it, and it fills up again, you would
be unhappy.

In C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp I see four folders

Inflight: contains 90 folders. most of them with modification date
November 14, when I upgraded to the November update.

PendingDeletes: 99 files, most of them dated October 30.

PendingRenames: empty

TransformerRollbackData: empty