Delivery Optimization Files | All You Should Know

Jerry updated on Jan 11, 2024 to Knowledge Center | How-to Articles

This is an informational guide on delivery optimization files. In this article, you can learn what delivery optimization files are, whether it is safe to delete them, and how to delete them. After reading, you can have an overall understanding of the delivery optimization file.

Have you heard of delivery optimization files? Actually, when you clean up your C drive, you might have seen them. This article offered by EaseUS will tell you about delivery optimization files, whether you can delete them, and how to delete them.

What Are Delivery Optimization Files

Delivery Optimization is a Windows feature enabling a computer to receive and deliver portions of system and app updates from other devices connected to the same network. It asks for a larger bandwidth and, accordingly, lets you get Windows updates much faster. As long as you have enabled such choices, it can work on the local and internet networks.

Delivery Optimization files are those Windows update downloaded files and the cache of the files your computer sent to other devices. And they are part of the Windows update optimization service.

Typically, these files are located in C drive:

%WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\DeliveryOptimization

Pros and Cons of Delivery Optimization Files

Now, you know what delivery optimization files are. You may wonder why these files exist. In this part, we will walk you through the advantages and disadvantages of these files.

                              ?Pros                            ?Cons
  • Reduce bandwidth consumption.
  • Higher security.
  • Get Windows updates easily.
  • Takes up hard drive space. 
  • No control over the content.

Pros of Delivery Optimization Files

  • Reduce bandwidth consumption. These files let you download Windows updates and apps faster with less bandwidth.
  • Higher security. With delivery optimization files, Windows does not allow you to download a file from a single source online. This ensures that the files are free of computer viruses or malware, thus protecting the security of your computer system.
  • Get Windows updates easily. These files will help lessen the unnecessary stress on the main server. As a result, the server won't have to handle an unneeded burden, and users will find it easier to get Windows updates.

Windows updates can help protect your Windows system from potentially harmful software and quickly cope with general Windows bugs or issues while providing new features. But have you ever encountered Windows updates not installing problems?

Windows Update Not Installing - Try These 6 Fixes

Sometimes, you might encounter the Windows update not installing error. When you are in such a situation, you can turn to this article for help.

Cons of Delivery Optimization Files

  • Takes up hard drive space. These files occupy disk space that could be used for other types of information. This is also the biggest issue of these files.
  • No control over the content. The Windows updates are automatic and finished without computer user interference, so you cannot control these optimization files.

Can I Delete Delivery Optimization Files

However, after using your computer for a long time, more and more delivery optimization files will take up the disk space. At this time, you may need to free up disk space for new update files. Have you ever been stuck on the question, "Can I delete delivery optimization files?"

The answer is in the affirmative. You can delete these files to release space on your hard drive. In addition, deleting these files will not cause any issues or affect your computer's performance because they have only one purpose - helping users with system updates.

Therefore, deleting them will only influence the Windows update process (usually the speed).

How to Delete Delivery Optimization Files

If you want to remove these delivery optimization files to free up disk space, you need to use the Windows built-in tool - Disk Cleanup. Perform the steps below to delete these files:

Step 1. Navigate to This PC, right-click on the C drive, and select Properties.

Step 2. Under the General tab in the Properties window, select Disk Cleanup.

Step 3. Disk Cleanup will begin to scan your C drive. You will see a list of files when the scanning process stops. Scroll down the list to find the Delivery Optimization Files.

Step 4. Check the box and uncheck other files you do not want to delete. Then tap OK.

After deleting these files, you will have some free space on your computer disk for other uses.

The Bottom Line

This article tells you what are delivery optimization files, whether you can delete them, and how to delete them. Removing the delivery optimization files from your system would be best if you've had storage space issues for a long time. If you wish to protect your files, you can back up your files. Hopefully, you can find what you want in this article.