Good call, I forgot to even check that because I saw no mention of that being addressed in the release notes. I tried it after reading your post. Sadly, the issue remains.
BTW, I need to correct myself: I had stated recently that I was 99% sure that this was a reporting problem only. From what I have been reading today, it sounds like this is a real problem.
64GB (Waiting for warranty replacement of another 64GB for 128GB total)
Graphics Card(s)
No GPU - Built-in Intel Graphics
Sound Card
Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
HP Envy 32
Screen Resolution
2560 x 1440
Hard Drives
1 x 1TB NVMe SSD
1 x 2TB NVMe SSD
1 x 4TB NVMe SSD
3 x 512GB 2.5" SSD
1 x 4TB 2.5" SSD
5 x 8TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
PSU
Corsair HX850i
Case
Corsair iCUE RGB 5000X mid tower case
Cooling
Noctua NF-S12A chromax.black.swap case fans (Qty. 7) & Home Computer Specifications, Configuration, and Usage Notes General Specifications ASUS Prime Z590-A motherboard, serial number M1M0KC222467ARP Intel Core i7-11700K CPU (11th Gen Rocket Lake / LGA 1200 Socket) 128GB Crucial Ballistix RGB DDR4 3200 MHz DRAM (4 x 32GB) Corsair iCUE RGB 5000X mid tower case Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black CPU cooler Noctua NF-S12A chromax.black.swap case fans (Qty. 7) & Corsair LL-120 RGB Fans (Qty. 3)
Keyboard
Corsair K70 Max RGB Magnetic Keyboard
Mouse
Logitech MX Master 3
Internet Speed
1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
Browser
Edge
Antivirus
Windows Defender
Other Info
The five 8TB drives and three 512GB SSDs are part of a DrivePool using StableBit DrivePool software. The three SSDs are devoted purely to caching for the 8TB drives. All of the important data is stored in triplicate so that I can withstand simultaneous failure of 2 disks.
Networking: 2.5Gbps Ethernet and WiFi 6e
Operating System
Win11 Pro 23H2
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
CPU
Intel i7-1255U
Memory
16 GB
Graphics card(s)
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Sound Card
Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
Monitor(s) Displays
13.3-inch IPS Display
Screen Resolution
WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
Hard Drives
2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
PSU
USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
Mouse
Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
Keyboard
Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
Internet Speed
1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
Browser
Edge
Antivirus
Windows Defender
Other Info
WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
I haven't read every post in this thread so I'm sorry if this has been mentioned already, but it looks like it is a deliberate requirement in 24H2. It is not a bug: -
Microsoft is preparing a patch to solve the problem, which should be rolled out as part of an upcoming update. Until then, you should leave the Windows Update cache untouched. It really isn’t worth the hassle of reinstalling Windows just to clear those files.
So exactly where is this 8.63 GB of data? I clean-installed my Dell laptop yesterday which I've been meaning to do for a while. Immediately afterwards it shows this 8.63 GB in disk cleanup. This led me to compare its Windows directory with my desktop which also shows 8.63 GB.
The WinSXS directory is is 5.3 GB on the laptop and 8.4 GB on the desktop. The desktop also has an "Installer" directory which is 8.5 GB, but only 378 MB on the laptop. Yet both systems are reporting exactly 8.63 GB of files can be deleted.
My conclusion from this is that it seems to be merely a misreporting issue and there is no actual disk space to be released.
I think disk cleanup has always over-reported the space to be freed. Hadn't done a clean up on the wife's PC recently and cleanup showed 15 Gb to be freed. After running it, it showed 8.63 Gb still there so 6.37 Gb supposedly freed. But Windows directory reduced in size only from 30 Gb to 27 Gb.
That's just one of the reasons that we recommend using a imaging program to make system backups to an external drive. If interested, the free version of of Macrium can be found on Major Geeks. Download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - MajorGeeks
The 8.63GB payload is there specifically to protect the tweakers who want to delete everything. It's wrong to demonize MS for this. They just need to be more transparent.
I first installed 24h2 using windows 11 assistant; it installed 1742. Made a backup then ran windows update and installed 2033 and using disk cleanup it cleaned up all the update files.
64GB (Waiting for warranty replacement of another 64GB for 128GB total)
Graphics Card(s)
No GPU - Built-in Intel Graphics
Sound Card
Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
HP Envy 32
Screen Resolution
2560 x 1440
Hard Drives
1 x 1TB NVMe SSD
1 x 2TB NVMe SSD
1 x 4TB NVMe SSD
3 x 512GB 2.5" SSD
1 x 4TB 2.5" SSD
5 x 8TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
PSU
Corsair HX850i
Case
Corsair iCUE RGB 5000X mid tower case
Cooling
Noctua NF-S12A chromax.black.swap case fans (Qty. 7) & Home Computer Specifications, Configuration, and Usage Notes General Specifications ASUS Prime Z590-A motherboard, serial number M1M0KC222467ARP Intel Core i7-11700K CPU (11th Gen Rocket Lake / LGA 1200 Socket) 128GB Crucial Ballistix RGB DDR4 3200 MHz DRAM (4 x 32GB) Corsair iCUE RGB 5000X mid tower case Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black CPU cooler Noctua NF-S12A chromax.black.swap case fans (Qty. 7) & Corsair LL-120 RGB Fans (Qty. 3)
Keyboard
Corsair K70 Max RGB Magnetic Keyboard
Mouse
Logitech MX Master 3
Internet Speed
1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
Browser
Edge
Antivirus
Windows Defender
Other Info
The five 8TB drives and three 512GB SSDs are part of a DrivePool using StableBit DrivePool software. The three SSDs are devoted purely to caching for the 8TB drives. All of the important data is stored in triplicate so that I can withstand simultaneous failure of 2 disks.
Networking: 2.5Gbps Ethernet and WiFi 6e
Operating System
Win11 Pro 23H2
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
CPU
Intel i7-1255U
Memory
16 GB
Graphics card(s)
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Sound Card
Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
Monitor(s) Displays
13.3-inch IPS Display
Screen Resolution
WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
Hard Drives
2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
PSU
USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
Mouse
Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
Keyboard
Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
Internet Speed
1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
Browser
Edge
Antivirus
Windows Defender
Other Info
WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor