Win10 KB4490481 Could Leave 6 Reclaimable Packages Behind
Just yesterday, MS released a new cumulative update (CU) — namely, KB4490481. For the first time in my experience, Win10 KB4490481 leaves 6 reclaimable packages behind. What does this mean? After you install this update, run DISM /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore You’ll see something that looks like this (captured inside a PowerShell administrator session):
Notice the line in the command output near the bottom that reads “Number of reclaimable packages: 6.” In my experience, this sets a new record for detritus in the wake of a Windows 10 CU.
Win10 KB4490481 Leaves 6 Reclaimable Packages Behind. So What?
As I recite in my previous blog post, cleanup using DISM /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup after this CU can pay big dividends. Notice the size of the item in the preceding screen capture: Backups and Disable Features. At 8.94 GB, all that goes bye-bye after the cleanup. My typical cleanup results came in around 9.5 GB, so there’s another 0.54 GB that gets whisked away from other component store nooks and crannies, too.
As post-CU clean-ups go, this one’s a biggie. In fact, it’s the biggest one I can ever remember seeing. Especially for those running Win10 1809 on small-footprint devices (tablets or laptops with limited storage of 32 or 64 GB) this maneuver seems more mandatory than optional. But even for those with system/boot SSDs of 512 GB or larger, a 9+ GB cleanup still remains significant. And, should you run into the same error I encountered when working this through on the Release Preview before it hit general distribution, my previous blog post explains how to fix that, too. Alas, though, if you’re updating only from 17763.379 to 17763.404, you’ll find only 1 reclaimable package when you run /AnalyzeComponentStore. This will recover upwards of 1.6 GB instead (because there are many fewer packages involved). YMMV, as they say on the Internet.
If all this talk about component store cleanup piques your interest — and I hope it does — here’s a great resource for further exploration. Shawn Brink over at TenForums offers a great tutorial on this stuff. Prosaically enough, it’s entitled “Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10.” It goes into and illustrates all the relevant DISM commands in detail. It’s worth a read-through. You can even use it as a step-by-step guide to work through these commands on your own Win10 PCs. Check it out!