how to delete backup files in windows 10
How do I delete Windows backup files?
Your Windows 7 machine creates automatic backup files for you using the backup tools. It saves them on your hard drive, so eventually the backups take up several megabytes of hard drive space. As you accumulate backups, deleting old ones frees up hard drive space, and you do not lose critical backup files. The Windows system keeps track of each backup, so you choose from a list and delete each old backup one-by-one.
Step 1
Click the Windows "Start" button and click the "Control Panel" menu item. Click "System and Security" to open a list of options.
Step 2
Click "Back Up Your Computer" to open a new screen. Click the "Change Settings" link. In this window, click the button labeled "View Backups" to see a list of backups saved to the computer's hard drive.
Click the backup you want to delete and click the "Delete" button. Click "Yes" in the confirmation screen. Repeat this step for each backup you want to remove from the machine.
How to uninstall a Windows 10 update
Unfortunately, now is an important time to know how to uninstall a Windows 10 update.
It’s usually a good idea to keep Windows 10 up to date on your PC to ensure it has the latest protections and features. However, even a huge company like Microsoft can get things wrong, and its Windows updates have been known to cause serious problems in the past.
If you’ve recently installed a Windows update and it’s causing trouble, you could try uninstalling it. There are several ways to do this, each of which could restore your PC to proper working order. In this guide we’ll show you how it’s done, helping you get things back to the way they should be.
1. : View recent Windows 10 updates
Thankfully, Microsoft makes it easy to view and uninstall recent Windows 10 updates. The quickest way to do this is via the Settings app that comes bundled with Windows 10.
Click the Start button, then click the Settings cog. Once the Settings app opens, click Update & Security. From the list in the centre of the window, click “View update history,” then “Uninstall updates” in the top-left corner.
This will open a Control Panel window listing all the recently installed updates to your computer. By default, this list is filtered into groups and sorted with the most recent updates at the top.
2. Uninstall updates in Settings and the Control Panel
Scroll down to the Microsoft Windows section, then click on the update at the top of the list. It should be the one with the most recent install date.
Take a note of its full name and Knowledge Base (KB) number, as these might come in useful later. If you can’t find and update and know its name or KB number, you can use the search box in the top-right corner to find it.
At the top of the updates table, click Uninstall. You will be prompted as to whether you’re sure you want to uninstall the update; click Yes. Now let Windows complete the uninstallation process, which may require a restart.
3. No luck? Use Advanced startup
If the standard Settings approach doesn’t work, you can try restarting your computer and uninstalling an update before you boot into Windows.
By doing this before Windows 10 loads, you can potentially avoid loading programs that could block or otherwise interfere with the uninstallation process.
Open the Settings app, then click Update & Security. In the left-hand column, click Recovery. Near the bottom of the window is the “Advanced startup” section; click “Restart now” to reboot your computer in Advanced startup mode.
4. Navigate through Advanced startup
When your computer restarts, you’ll be greeted with the Advanced startup menu. This is useful in a variety of situations, such as if you need to install Windows from a USB drive or a recovery DVD. However, in this case you’ll want to click the Troubleshoot option.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll see two choices: “Reset this PC” and “Advanced options;” choose the latter to progress with the uninstallation process. On the following screen there are various options, including Startup Repair, System Restore, Command Prompt, and more. Instead, click 'Uninstall Updates'.
5. Quality update or feature update?
On the next screen are two options: “Uninstall latest quality update” and “Uninstall latest feature update.” The KB number you noted down earlier should tell you what type of update it is with a quick internet search.
Click the appropriate option and your PC will restart (it may take a few minutes). Once it’s restarted, enter your Windows 10 login info and click Continue.
Click “Uninstall quality update” or “Uninstall feature update” (depending on what you chose earlier in this step) and the update will be removed. Finally, restart your PC if you are prompted to do so.
6. Still not working? Try the command prompt
Sometimes, an update will simply refuse to be uninstalled properly via either the Settings app or Advanced startup method.
In times like this, you can use the command prompt to force Windows 10 to uninstall the patch. Once again, you’ll need the update’s unique KB number to uninstall the update.
Be aware that the Windows 10 command prompt lets you type commands directly into Windows and has no graphical user interface, so you should only follow the next few steps if you’re confident that you know what you’re doing.
7. Open the Windows 10 command prompt
Now that you have the KB number, you’ll need to open the Windows 10 command prompt and run the Windows Update Standalone Installer (or WUSA) to uninstall the update that’s causing you bother.
Open the Windows 10 command prompt by typing “cmd” into the Windows 10 search box.
The top result should say Command Prompt; right-click it, then click “Run as administrator” to make sure you can carry out the tasks you need to do. The following steps will outline a few of your options, all of which should hopefully do the job.
8. Uninstall a stubborn update with WUSA
In the Windows command prompt, type:
wusa /uninstall /KB:UpdateID
Replace 'UpdateID' with the KB number of the update you want removed.
For example, if the update’s ID number is KB4573019, type:
wusa /uninstall /KB:4573019
into the command prompt window, then press Enter and follow the on-screen prompts. Let WUSA uninstall the update; it will tell you when it’s complete or if any errors occur during its operations. You may then have to restart your computer so the uninstall process can be finished.
9. Extra WUSA options
If you’d rather not have the on-screen prompts and just want to let WUSA get on with the uninstallation process, add “/quiet” to the end of the instructions before pressing Enter. For instance, the example in step 8 would become:
wusa /uninstall /KB:4573019 /quiet
There are other options you can add to the instructions: /norestart or /forcerestart will, as their names suggest, prevent or force your PC to restart when finished.
If you want to avoid all prompts except the restart prompt, use /quiet and /warnrestart – for example:
wusa /uninstall /KB:4573019 /quiet /warnrestart
10. Check the WUSA log
If you use WUSA, you can check its log to make sure the update was successfully uninstalled. Type “event viewer” into the Windows 10 search box and click the top result. In the left-hand column, click the arrow next to Event Logs to expand your options, then click Setup.
To show only WUSA events, click Filter Current Log in the right-hand pane, then tick the checkbox next to WUSA in the “Event sources” drop-down menu and click OK. Double-click on the relevant WUSA event to get more information, including any error messages that were generated.
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Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files
If some Windows functions aren't working or Windows crashes, use the System File Checker to scan Windows and restore your files.
Though the steps below might look complicated at first glance, just follow them in order, step-by-step, and we’ll try to get you back on track.
Run the System File Checker tool (SFC.exe)
To do this, follow these steps:
Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, do the following as your appropriate:
If you are running Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 8, first run the inbox Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool prior to running the System File Checker. (If you are running Windows 7 or Windows Vista, skip to Step 3.)
Type the following command, and then press Enter. It may take several minutes for the command operation to be completed.
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
Important: When you run this command, DISM uses Windows Update to provide the files that are required to fix corruptions. However, if your Windows Update client is already broken, use a running Windows installation as the repair source, or use a Windows side-by-side folder from a network share or from a removable media, such as the Windows DVD, as the source of the files. To do this, run the following command instead:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\RepairSource\Windows /LimitAccess
Note: Replace the C:\RepairSource\Windows placeholder with the location of your repair source. For more information about using the DISM tool to repair Windows, reference Repair a Windows Image.
At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
sfc /scannow
The sfc /scannow command will scan all protected system files, and replace corrupted files with a cached copy that is located in a compressed folder at %WinDir%\System32\dllcache.
The %WinDir% placeholder represents the Windows operating system folder. For example, C:\Windows.
Note Do not close this Command Prompt window until the verification is 100% complete. The scan results will be shown after this process is finished.
After the process is finished, you may receive one of the following messages:
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
This means that you do not have any missing or corrupted system files.Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.
To resolve this problem, perform the System File Checker scan in safe mode, and make sure that the PendingDeletes and PendingRenames folders exist under %WinDir%\WinSxS\Temp.Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log.
To view the detail information about the system file scan and restoration, go to How to view details of the System File Checker process.Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log.
To repair the corrupted files manually, view details of the System File Checker process to find the corrupted file, and then manually replace the corrupted file with a known good copy of the file.
Windows 8.1 or Windows 8
Windows 10, Windows 7, or Windows Vista
More Information:
How to view details of the System File Checker process
To view the details that included in the CBS.Log file, you can copy the information to the Sfcdetails.txt file by using the Findstr command, and then view the details in the Sfcdetails.txt. To do this, follow these steps:
Open an elevated command prompt as described in the previous step 1.
At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"
Note The Sfcdetails.txt file contains details from every time that the System File Checker tool has been run on the computer. The file includes information about files that were not repaired by the System File Checker tool. Verify the date and time entries to determine the problem files that were found the last time that you ran the System File Checker tool.Open the Sfcdetails.txt file from your desktop.
The Sfcdetails.txt file uses the following format:
Date/Time SFC detail The following sample log file contains an entry for a file that could not be repaired: 2007-01-12 12:10:42, Info CSI 00000008 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:34{17}]"Accessibility.dll" of Accessibility, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_MSIL (8), Culture neutral, VersionScope neutral, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:b03f5f7f11d50a3a}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, file is missing
How to manually replace a corrupted system file with a known good copy of the file
After you determine which system file was corrupted and could not be repaired through the detail information in the Sfcdetails.txt file, find where the corrupted file located, and then manually replace the corrupted file with a known good copy of the file. To do this, follow these steps:
Note You may be able to get a known good copy of the system file from another computer that is running the same version of Windows with your computer. You may perform a System File Checker process on that computer to make sure the system file that you intend to copy is a good copy.
Take administrative ownership of the corrupted system file. To do this, at an elevated command prompt, copy and then paste (or type) the following command, and then press ENTER:
takeown /f Path_And_File_Name Note The Path_And_File_Name placeholder represents the path and the file name of the corrupted file. For example, type takeown /f C:\windows\system32\jscript.dll.Grant administrators full access to the corrupted system file. To do this, copy and paste (or type) the following command, and then press ENTER:
icacls Path_And_File_Name /GRANT ADMINISTRATORS:F Note The Path_And_File_Name placeholder represents the path and the file name of the corrupted file. For example, type icacls C:\windows\system32\jscript.dll /grant administrators:F.Replace the corrupted system file with a known good copy of the file. To do this, copy and paste (or type) the following command, and then press ENTER:
Copy Source_File Destination Note The Source_File placeholder represents the path and file name of the known good copy of the file on your computer, and the Destination placeholder represents the path and file name of the corrupted file. For example, type copy E:\temp\jscript.dll C:\windows\system32\jscript.dll.
If the steps above don't work, you may need to reinstall Windows. For more info, see Windows 10 recovery options.
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