Windows Cache folders are the folders that contain all the details about past Windows updates, their dates of installation, and other relevant information. SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 are two such folders. When the data in these folders exceeds the permissible limit, they often start causing issues while updating your Windows OS. In such a case, it is better to clear the SoftwareDistribution folder on your Windows PC.
Is it Safe to delete the Software Distribution Folder?
Since this is a cache folder, deleting it won’t cause any issues on your computer. However, before you do so, make sure to disable all update-related services. If not, you may end up encountering more update issues than before.
The best thing about this folder is that it auto-generates. This simply means that even when you delete this folder from your system, this file will be pop-up the next time you restart your computer. In short, this folder is never gone from your system.
How to Clear the SoftwareDistribution Folder on Windows
To purge the SoftwareDistribution folder on Windows 11/10 PC, follow these easy steps –
- Press Windows + R to launch the Run dialog.
- Type “CMD” without quotes on it and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
- When the UAC prompt appears, hit Yes to authorize accessing Command Prompt as an administrator.
- On the elevated console, copy/paste the below commands, and press the Enter key separately.
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
net stop appidsvc
net stop cryptsvc
- These codes will stop all essential update-related services from running on your computer.
- Now that you have stopped the essential services, press Windows + E to launch File Explorer.
- When the explorer opens up, navigate to the below path –
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
- If the root drive differs from C: on your computer, use the appropriate root drive’s letter in the above command.
- The system will take you inside the SoftwareDistribution folder.
- Use Ctrl + A to select all items, and then Ctrl + X to move the selected items to a different folder.
- Open a new folder anywhere on the non-root drive, and use Ctrl + V to paste the copied items here.
Note: If you want, you may even choose to delete all items instead of copying the cache items to a new folder. However, we don’t recommend doing so, as you may end up losing some important files or folders.
- Now that you have purged all items from the SoftwareDistribution folder, you may now restart all those services that you stopped earlier.
- To do this, re-open the Command prompt as administrator and run the following codes on it –
net start wuauserv
net start bits
net start appidsvc
net start cryptsvc
- Restart your computer so that the recent changes come into effect from the next login.
That’s it, you have successfully cleared the SoftwareDistribution folder on Windows 11. Catroot2 is another important cache folder on Windows PC. If you want to clear the contents inside this folder as well, read this guide.
Renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder in Windows
Alternatively, users may also rename the SoftwareDistribution folder on their computers. Proceeding this way, you may easily re-use the previous folders that you have renamed recently. Here’s how to perform this task on your Windows PC –
- Launch Windows PowerShell as administrator first and then run the following codes on it.
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
net stop appidsvc
net stop cryptsvc
- After all update services are disabled or stopped, you may go ahead and rename the SoftwareDistribution folder. You may rename this folder to anything, however, we recommend adding an extension “
.old” by its name end. This way you need not require remembering the folder name to be used in the future. - Here are the codes that you need to run on the PowerShell.
rename C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
rename C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 Catroot2.old
- While the first command renames the SoftwareDistribution folder, the second one renames the Ctaroot2 folder.
- Restart all those services that you have stopped previously next. To do this, run these commands one after another.
net start wuauserv
net start bits
net start appidsvc
net start cryptsvc
- Restart your PC and check if the SoftwareDistribution folder is cleared of its old contents. When you reach out to the C:\Windows path, you will see two SoftwareDistribution folders, out of which one bears the
.oldextension. - You may delete the earlier instances of this folder if your device is functioning pretty well.
How do I delete the SoftwareDistribution Folder on Windows 11?
If you don’t want to manually move all the items from inside the SoftwareDistribution to a different folder, or even rename this folder, use the following codes on the elevated console to delete these folders. Make sure to disable the update-related services first so that they don’t get compromised and corrupt the entire operating system.
rmdir %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution /S /Q
Note: The above two commands will remove both the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folders along with their subdirectories. The “/S” switch works to delete the specified directory and all subdirectories within the main folder while the “/Q” switch is used to delete directories quietly without confirmation.
- Wait for a few seconds and then restart all those services that you have stopped from running on your Windows PC.
Sometimes, when you run the above codes, it fails to run on an error message – “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.” If that’s the case, you should attempt again from the start. There’s a possibility that one of the stopped services might have restarted unexpectedly. So, you need to disable that service first and then proceed ahead with the deletion part.
