Unfortunately, many users note that some updates released for our popular Windows 7 OS can often (most often due to their flaws) cause unexpected failures and errors, not only the latest ones, but also obviously outdated. In addition, the updates themselves on the hard drive take up too much space. How do I uninstall old updates for Windows 7 Ultimate, Home, or any other modifications released later? By and large, there is nothing impossible in this. The only question is how expedient such actions are. In most cases, this concerns cleaning up disk space when it is not enough for user needs or to prevent all sorts of conflicts.
Can I uninstall old updates for Windows 7 and similar system versions?
Speaking of the possibility of completely removing obsolete updates that the user does not need, it can be noted that it is really possible to get rid of them. Harm to the system is notwill cause, especially since in all modifications for which the release of updates is constantly announced by Microsoft, such a possibility is provided from the very beginning. The only trouble is that it is almost impossible to perform such operations manually.
When searching for updates, files are placed in a special WinSxS directory, which is located directly in the main directory of the system on the C drive, but subfolders and files cannot be deleted in the usual way in Explorer, if only because access to them, whether the user is at least three times an administrator, it is completely blocked. How to uninstall old Windows 7 Home updates or any other version of the OS, including earlier and later? An ordinary user can be offered at least three options for actions that can be performed independently.
How to remove old Windows 7 updates: the simplest method
So, for starters, you can use the regular means of cleaning the system partition. In Explorer, through the RMB menu on the system drive, select the properties item and on the immediately presented general settings tab, click the disk cleanup button.
After the system scans objects that can be safely disposed of, additionally press the button to clean up system files, and in the expanded list that appears, check the necessary items. For the removal of updates, the item of previous system installations or the item of updates is responsible. after that it's justconfirm cleaning. The process can take quite a long time, so be patient.
Selective removal of updates by means of the system
Now a few words about how to remove old Windows 7 updates selectively. To do this, you can use an equally simple technique.
In the "Control Panel" (control), select the program and components section, in the window with the list of applications presented, go to the item for viewing installed updates, which is located in the menu on the left, scroll through the list, mark the package that is no longer needed (all the names of system updates start with the letters "KV"), then just click the delete button at the top. After completing all the steps, do not forget to reboot the system.
Using uninstallers
Now let's see how to remove old Windows 7 update files using automated applications. For example, take the iObit Uninstaller program, which is considered one of the most powerful in its class.
In the application menu, go to the Windows updates section (it can be called either from the list on the left or by pressing the button on the top right), then sort the packages by date of installation, mark the unnecessary ones and click the uninstall button. The use of such utilities is convenient because you can get rid of updates in batch mode, that is, remove several pieces at a time. It is impossible to perform such an operation using standard system tools (updates will have to be deleted one by one).
Note: the second and third methods can also get rid of unnecessary self-installing Office packages.
How to completely disable the installation of updates?
How to uninstall old Windows 7 updates, figured it out. But after all, the main problem lies precisely in the fact that with automatic installation of updates activated, the system will still search for and install them, regardless of whether the user needs them or not. Here you can do two things. In the first case, in the "Update Center" you can activate manual search and exclude unnecessary packages from the list (this is especially often necessary to prevent the installation of failed updates that cause critical errors).
In the second option, you can disable the "Update Center" altogether, using the services section (services.msc), where you need to stop the services indicated in the image above and set the start type to manual start. Again, after saving the options, it is advisable to perform a complete restart of the computer (not logging out of the system or account, but just rebooting).
Note: to disable the installation of updates only for office applications, it is enough to deactivate the item for searching and installing updates for other Microsoft software products.
Result
In principle, the problem of how to uninstall old Windows 7 updates can be solved bycreating special keys in the system registry and then launching an automated process from the command console or using the PowerShell toolkit, but such procedures for the average user may seem too complicated to master, so they were not considered. In addition, it is possible, after all, to do trouble in the registry, and such that the entire system refuses to work (if anyone does not know, all changes are saved automatically, and there is absolutely no possibility to undo or roll back the actions performed). But, returning to the main question, we can say that the three listed methods are enough for ordinary users, as they say, with their heads. In addition, no matter how hard you try, it is precisely the use of such techniques that you will not cause damage to the functionality of the system itself, even despite the fact that almost all updates released are focused on eliminating security problems.
