Folder "DeliveryOptimization" very large

Florian.C -  
brucine Posted messages 25125 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -

Hello,

while inspecting my C drive, I was surprised to find a very large file by following this path:

C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\DeliveryOptimization\Cache\97(...)

named content.bin

with a size of 84.7 GB

After doing some research, I realized that it is something that can be deleted by cleaning the C:\ drive and checking the "Delivery Optimization Files" option.

However, this does not change anything; the content.bin file of 84.7 GB is still present.

My question is: is it possible to delete it manually, and if so, do you recommend deleting only that file, or going further up in the hierarchy and deleting, for example, the "Cache" folder or even "DeliveryOptimization" itself?

I should mention that I have disabled delivery optimization in the PC update settings.

Thank you in advance for your help,


3 answers

  1. brucine Posted messages 25125 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 163
     

    Hello,

    Check via Windows Update that your PC is up to date, it may be remnants of old updates.

    To my knowledge, we cannot delete the folder itself, it's a system folder.

    There is nothing preventing the manual deletion of files if it's possible; otherwise, try doing it via the command line with:

    netsh branchcache flush

    1
  2. Florian.C
     

    Thanks for the reply, brucine!

    Besides the fact that I haven't switched to Windows 11, my PC is up to date ;)

    Should the netsh branchcache flush command be run from cmd?

    Because it can't find the "branchcache flush" command, maybe I need to navigate to a specific location from cmd and then run the command?

    0
    1. brucine Posted messages 25125 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 163
       

      Yes, but from the command prompt in administrator mode (which can be obtained by right-clicking and selecting run as if it is not readily available).

      1
  3. Florian.C
     

    When I enter the command

    netsh branchcache flush

    right after launching CMD in admin mode, it always tells me that it can't find the command "branchcache flush" :/

    0
    1. brucine Posted messages 25125 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 163
       

      Hello,

      "Bam", I'm stuck: it's a solution that only works in network and/or Windows Server contexts, which can be "delivered" by default in certain standalone versions of Windows 7/10 (generating an appropriate service), otherwise we are stuck, both through the command interpreter and through PowerShell, that would have been too easy...

      So now, all that's left is to try to manually remove the stubborn one; if it doesn’t want to go, that means we have to get out of Windows to do it, which means performing this removal from another dual-boot system if we have one, otherwise from something that boots from a Live CD/USB.

      At the extreme; it’s even possible from a Windows installation key, provided it only has a DOS mode and you have to find the exact path of the file for the DEL command, that’s going to be tough; it’s easier to do this with something that boots in graphical mode, for example, the simplest being a Live CD/USB Puppy/Toutou Linux.

      1
      1. Florian.C > brucine Posted messages 25125 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         

        I think I'm going to go for a manual deletion, the old-fashioned way; in that case, do you recommend that I just delete the content.bin file, or should I go a bit higher up in the hierarchy and delete a parent file(s)?

        0
      2. brucine Posted messages 25125 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 163 > Florian.C
         

        You can also delete all files in Cache and the older Log files under Log and State, although the benefit is not obvious.

        The parent folders in Windows are generally all empty except for Shell and WinX, which should be left as they are, as well as the empty structure.

        0