Windows 11 24H2, a new update for the operating system that Microsoft began rolling out on the first of October with several improvements, including new AI experiences and support for Wi-Fi 7, leaves nearly 9 GB of files that cannot be deleted, according to new complaints that are being shared by early adopters. “It’s leaving 8.63 GB of stuff behind,” one forum user said of the issue, which reportedly stems from checkpoint cumulative updates—a system that Microsoft introduced earlier this year to help “save time, bandwidth, and hard drive space.” A look at what the Windows Update Cleanup option under Settings might look like after Windows 11 24H2 is installed can be found below.
Microsoft told me it’s aware of the reports and plans to release a fix in an upcoming update. Windows 11 24H2 ships with the checkpoint updates feature, but this change has caused an issue where a large, undeletable 8.63GB update cache appears. This happens because components from the current checkpoint update, like September’s KB5043080, are flagged as necessary for future updates, so they cannot be removed during cleanup.