I believe you are now well versed with the purpose of having SoftwareDistribution folder in Windows. And also as discussed previously there is no harm in deleting or renaming SoftwareDistribution folder, rather it is incorporated as a troubleshooting step when facing issues with Microsoft Windows 10 updates. So if you are looking for ways on how to delete SoftwareDistribution folder then please follow the below given steps and you will be all through on making your Windows updates work flawless again 🙂 Let’s first deal with deleting the folder and then we would move to the rename part. Both serves the same purpose but deletion is a better option as it helps you to save your precious disk space. Check below troubleshooting Guide on How to Delete SoftwareDistribution folder in Windows 10.
Prerequisite : Disable Automatic Updates in Windows 10
Before you move onto deleting or renaming SoftwareDistribution folder it is important that you first make your way by disabling the automatic update service in Windows 10. If you don’t know how to disable automatic updates in Windows 10 don’t worry just follow the underlined link. OR alternatively just follow the below method where with the help of command prompt we would be first disabling the Windows update service.
How to Delete SoftwareDistribution Folder in Windows 10 ? – Steps to Follow
Open your Windows Command Prompt in Admin Mode (Run As Admin) and there enter the following commands one by one which will eventually stop the Windows Update Service and the Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
Once you are done with stopping the update services you may go to the SoftwareDistribution Folder location and delete the folder or empty it’s contents.
How to Rename SoftwareDistribution Folder in Windows 10 ? – Steps to Follow
Now if instead of deleting Windows SoftwareDistribution folder, you wish to rename SoftwareDistribution folder then follow the below steps.
Open your Windows Command Prompt in Admin Mode (Run As Admin) and there enter the following commands one by one which will eventually stop the Windows Update Service and the Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
rename c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
net start wuauserv
net start bits
That’s it this will help you to rename SoftwareDistribution folder and windows will automatically create a new SoftwareDistribution folder thereby fixing the update issues.