Posted on 07/14/2026 6:41:11 AM PDT by LouAvul
They put a bug on my computer that has a 500GB appetite for free space. My computer is 469GB. By the time I was made aware of what's happening my free space was down to ~5GB.
MS released a patch, but it requires ~6GB to install and run. By the time I was made aware of the patch, my free space was down to ~2GB. I tried to download the patch several times but it aborted each time for lack of space.
I deleted programs and files but as soon as I did, the bug ate the free space.
Now, I can't even reformat and restore because that process also requires 6GB to run. It aborts and tells me to erase enough programs to let it run.
It's an old computer so it's not worth much, but it ran ok till now. There is a program I bought in digital form and have no cd backup.
W/win 11, can a bible study program be transferred from this computer to a new computer? AI says no. It can't even be transferred to an external drive.
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Thumb drive or external SSD all of your data files, then do the cleanup.
Open the trash can, sort by size, then by alpha, visually check out to make sure you’ve not accidentally deleted something you’ll need later.
Then “empty trash”.
Delete your browser cache, “all time”, but uncheck the box for “cookies”.
Do a search for filenames containing “cache”, and/or whatever those print spooler files were called (depending on the age of the CPU and/or OS). Get rid of them.
I use auto update with MS and have never had a problem.
Sounds like you downloaded an OS update and didn’t install it...it just sits there taking up space.
[snip] W/win 11, can a bible study program be transferred from this computer to a new computer? AI says no. It can’t even be transferred to an external drive. [/snip]
I’d be shocked if that’s true. Even without dealing with virtual machines and their single-file versions of previous hard drives, programs to make exact copies of your existing drives onto larger new drives, expanding capacity, etc, are available.
Drive Cloning & Imaging
19:04
ExplainingComputers
424,645 views
November 11, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTsq-HHz0Ss
https://www.youtube.com/@ExplainingComputers/videos
It may be your hardware but it’s Microsoft’s software, which you are permitted to use under their terms. Download a bootable Linux and be free. I recommend Mint Cinnamon.
There is no 500G update.
I bought the Bible program on a CD off a website that was a one man operation. Years after the initial purchase, a very exclusive commentary by a man I'd heard and met, became available. I bought it from the one man operation's website in digitized form. It downloaded seamlessly.
But the man who owned the website passed and the website ceased to exist. The website was the only known source for the digitized commentary. Until then, I was able to download it to two other computers. But it's now unavailable.
I had a similar problem and used AI to solve. I’m not that computer literate beyond the usual, normal routines, so I can’t describe all the things we did; it was a rogue Msft program writing log files into free space.
I described the symptoms to AI and it told me what to check, what to do and after a lot of work, eventually the issue was isolated and fixed.
In general Microsoft is giving me a lot of problems, maybe I will try Linux - but the AI says there is a certain amount of computer administrator expertise needed to make the change on your own. Either that, or have someone set it up for you and get you up to speed on how Linux functions, and getting the things you do to work well on Linux.
It seems like Microsoft is screwing up things in a major way, more and more frequently. I hope these directions from Gemini AI help you to get things working again:
## Phase 1: Clear the Bloated File
Because the drive only has 5GB of free space, the file must be deleted first. Windows Update will not run successfully on a completely full drive.
### Step 1: Stop the Active Service
Windows will not allow the file to be deleted while it is currently in use.
1. Press the **Windows Key + R** on the keyboard to open the “Run” dialog box.
2. Type **`services.msc`** into the box and press **Enter**.
3. In the list that appears, scroll down to find **Capability Access Manager Service**.
4. Right-click **Capability Access Manager Service** and select **Stop**.
5. Keep this window open.
### Step 2: Delete the Log File
1. Press the **Windows Key + E** on the keyboard to open File Explorer.
2. Click inside the long, white address bar at the very top of the window, delete any existing text, paste the following path, and press **Enter**:
`C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager`
3. Locate the file named exactly **`CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal`**.
4. Right-click **`CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal`** and select **Delete** (the trash can icon).
* *Note: Do not delete the file that ends in simply `.db`. Only delete the file ending in `.db-wal`.*
### Step 3: Restart the Service
1. Return to the **Services** window left open from Step 1.
2. Right-click **Capability Access Manager Service** and select **Start**.
3. Close the Services window.
The storage space is now reclaimed.
## Phase 2: Install the Permanent Fix
To prevent the log file from ballooning again, the official Microsoft patch must be installed.
### Step 4: Run Windows Update
1. Press the **Windows Key + I** on the keyboard to open Settings.
2. Click **Windows Update** at the bottom of the left-hand menu.
3. Click the **Check for updates** button on the right side of the screen.
4. Locate and install update **KB5095093**.
5. Restart the computer when prompted to complete the process.
MS w11 update bricked my computer.
Tech support said “send it back”
In the past year, the stock price has gone from a high of $550 a share to a current $386.67.
The Microsoft Board of Directors seem happy with management performance. I wonder if the GC of Microsoft has ever heard of the term ‘fiduciary duty’.
My only point was that “life is too short” and LouAvul might want to consider moving on from his box and getting something easier.
if you are going to re-learn the operating system, just put linux on it. its free and will run on anything. no need to pay a crappy company a crapload of money
Yes. Depends on a person’s financial situation.
I still have a box with W7 on it. I maintain it because it has an original MGI photo program which does the few things I do to photos with no long paths and without having to change screens with every operation. Nothing past W7 can handle it. When I get the photos like I want them I transfer them to my W10. I will not go to W11. Linux is my next step, probably Mint.
What is the name of the study program? Nearly everything is available in the history of computing via torrents. I am sure you, or someone here, could find it. Being that it was a CD then you can probably just copy the installed location and run it. Give it a try running it on another computer.
It may be worth the money just taking it in to a professional shop that will have the skill and hardware for cloning hard drives if that program is essential for you. Get it fixed up, shut off the internet on that machine, then just get a cheap laptop top for browsing the web, email, and ‘productivity’ stuff. As others have mentioned linux. If you don’t have any other specific windows only programs a linux installation will have everything you need. I am forced to use MS as my design and engineering software only works on Windows. But if I didn’t need that a linux laptop would be just fine for anything I need.
I had some legacy software that can’t be updated on my current arrangement. It was a recipe program. But I just gave up on it and found another way. I liked that program but I couldn’t find it available for my current Mac. I used to run it on the Microsoft side of my machine. I’m too lazy to figure out the work arounds.
The AI says how Msft updates Windows has changed - and apparently for the worse. Instead of pushing out 2 or 3 well tested updates per year, now every little developer fiefdom does their little part - literally hundreds of little component developers pushing out an update/install request on their discreet area of software.
I’d update Win and the very next day it’s telling me I need to update again, which is disruptive and, as said, apparently increases the chances for update compatibility issues.
( Next computer I get will probably be a dual boot with Linux / MS with as much storage as I can afford. Dell has them. My wife is currently using a dual boot Computer with Linux Mint and she is not particularly high tech. As long as she can use Firefox on the Linux side and their word processor and connect to a printer she is good. )
“spyware”
I covered the cameras on my Windows PC and my cellphone with black electrical tape.
I would point out that the many versions of AI have widely varying "personalities" which often contradict one another.
I converted all of my old Windows 10 Pro machines to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC to keep getting security updates until 2032. This OS gets the security updates that actually are important, but gets none of the BS nonsense updates... so none of my older machines have been having this type of problem.
And as much as I am disgusted by so much of Microsoft's recent idiocy... I have not experienced any serious issues with Windows 11 Pro. But the primary reason that I update nearly all of my Windows machines licenses to pro is because it gives one options using the included Group Policy Editor to avoid a lot of this type of nonsense. (I would note that I have always used 3rd party providers and not Microsoft itself to upgrade to Pro.)
The other thing that I do is use the popular Powershell scripts on new installations to strip out the bloat, adware, and much of the other lunacy that Microsoft tries to shove down our throats...
https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil
https://github.com/raphire/win11debloat
So, because of these precautions, I have to admit that I have not had as many negative experiences as others. But I would note that as a computer hobbyist, I use mostly Linux with computers setup as servers and on my remote VMs such as my Hostinger Virtual Private Server, Google Cloud Platform Servers, and others.
Windows has its uses, Linux has its uses, and Apple has its uses (but usually at a premium price point).
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