If your Windows Update isn't working, it could be caused by a problem with the Software Distribution folder. If you need to delete or rename this folder, this post offered by MiniTool Solution will tell you how to that.
Is It Safe to Delete Software Distribution Folder?
The Software Distribution folder in the Windows operating system is a folder in the Windows directory. It is used to temporarily store files that may be needed to install Windows Update on your computer. The Software Distribution folder in Windows 10/8/7 is located in the following location in File Explorer: C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution.
Sometimes you need to empty its contents when your system’s Datastore and the Download folder have got de-synchronized because it results in your Windows Updates not working properly. Generally, once all the files it needs have been used to install Windows Update, you can delete the contents of the Software Distribution folder.
Even if you delete files in other ways, they will download automatically. If you delete the folder itself, the folder will be automatically recreated and the required WU components will be downloaded automatically.
However, your Windows Update History files are also contained in this data store. If you delete them, you will lose your Update history. In addition, the next time you run Windows Update, this will result in longer detection times.
You can consider deleting the Software Distribution folder on Windows 10/8/7 if your Windows Update is not working properly or not working at all or if you find that the size of this folder has really grown large.
How to Delete Software Distribution Folder?
To delete the contents of Windows SoftwareDistribution folder, you can follow the steps.
Step 1: Type Command Prompt in the Search menu. Then right-click it to choose Run as administrator:
Step 2: Run the following commands one by one:
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
Step 3: Now go to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder and delete all the files and folders inside by pressing the Ctrl+A keys to select all and then right-click to choose Delete.
If files are in use and you cannot delete some files, then you should restart your device. Run the above command again after restarting. Now you will be able to delete files from Software Distribution folder on Windows 10.
After emptying this folder, you can either restart your computer or type the following command one by one in Command Prompt and press Enter to restart Windows Update related services:
net start wuauserv
net start bits
How to Rename Software Distribution Folder?
If you want to rename the Software Distribution folder, let’s see how to do that:
Open an elevated command prompt and type the following commands one after the other, and press Enter:
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
rename c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
net start wuauserv
net start bits
Alternatively, you can also try to boot Windows 10 into Safe Mode, and rename SoftwareDistribution to SoftwareDistribution.bak or SoftwareDistribution.old.
Bottom Lines
In conclusion, you can know how to delete Software Distribution Folder and how to rename it. In addition, I analyze the risk of deleting it and you don’t need to worry about doing that. I hope this post can be useful to you.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Having been an editor at MiniTool since graduating college as an English major, Daisy specializes in writing about data backups, disk cloning, and file syncing as well as general computer knowledge and issues. In her free time, Daisy enjoys running and going with friends to the amusement park.