Windows Update (and for all I know other MS Update services) appears to download to a temporary folder in the root of the drive with the most free space at the time of the download. Delete Windows update files to regain hard-drive space. Windows 7 updates have zero respect for your space, and love to leave update packages hanging around after you're done installing them. Describes an update for new component d3dcompiler_47.dll in Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, or Windows 7 SP1. Update for the d3dcompiler_47.dll component on Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Is there a way to change the download path of windows updates?
(I want to protect my SSDs from unnecessary writes.)
Edit:
I read a lot of articles about SSD in the last 6 months, and I came to the conclusion, that it is not necessary to protect the SSD this way from the writes. A modern SSD withstands at least 500TB write during it's lifetime, so these few GBs of data does not really matter. http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead/3
2 Answers
I haven't tested this, but what about a symlink?
net stop wuauservmklink /j c:windowssoftwaredistribution d:otherdesiredlocationnet start wuauserv
Windows 7 Default Download Location
The updates are automatically downloaded to the WINDOWSSoftware DistributionDownload
subfolder.They are then unpacked to the drive which has the most free space available and installed from there.The contents of the Download subfolder are periodically flushed.
There's no way to redirect where the updates are downloaded to due to Security concerns.
After reading a post of meatspace I have found this one:
Start>Run
- type
cmd
and press enter - type
net stop wuauserv
and press enter - type
rename c:windowsSoftwareDistribution softwaredistribution.oldand
press enter
Creating a symbolic link using Junction (Download)
Windows 7 Update Download Folder Location
In this example the software distribution folder will be redirected from C:WINDOWSSoftwareDistribution
to the D:WINDOWSSoftwareDistribution
- Creating the Junction
To create the target directory from the command prompt
To create the Junction
Restart the Windows Update Service
type
net start wuauserv
and press enter
protected by Community♦Dec 30 '17 at 21:54
Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?