The settings app in Windows only gives you a list of available updates, but it won’t tell you how big they are. If you’re on a limited data plan or just curious, knowing the update size can be quite useful. In this guide, we’ll show you how to find the Windows update size using PowerShell and other alternative tools. Let’s get started.
Find Windows Update Size Using PowerShell
While PowerShell has no built-in command, we can use a PowerShell module called PSWindowsUpdate developed by one of the Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professional) to find the update size. Here’s how:
First, we need to install the PSWindowsUpdate PowerShell Module. We can do that directly from PowerShell. To do that, right-click the Start menu and select the Terminal (Admin). On Windows 10, select Windows PowerShell (Admin).
In the PowerShell tab/window, execute the following command to install the PSWindowsUpdate module. If PowerShell prompts you to install the Nuget module, type Y to continue. When you see the Untrusted repository prompt, type A and press Enter.
Note: The -Force flag will remove all the prompts to make the module installation smooth. You can remove the -Force flag and execute the command if you want.
Install-Module -Name PSWindowsUpdate -Force
Next, run the following command to change PowerShell’s execution policy to RemoteSigned. Without changing the execution policy, you cannot import external modules.
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -scope CurrentUserIf PowerShell prompts for confirmation, type A and press Enter to confirm the execution policy change.
After changing the execution policy, run the following command to import the PSWindowsUpdate module.
Import-Module PSWindowsUpdateFinally, execute the below command, and PowerShell will list all the available updates for your system and their size. You can see the size of each update under the Size section.
Get-WindowsUpdate
That’s all. Once you know the size, you can close the PowerShell window. If you are adventurous, take a look at the official PSWindowsUpdate module download page and experiment with other commands. The module can also do other things like show the update history, download & install updates, uninstall updates, etc.
Link to Windows Update PowerShell Module page — https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/PSWindowsUpdate/
Using Windows Update Minitool
If you don’t like using command line tools, you can use Windows Update Minitool, a free and portable software to check Windows update size. Here’s how:
To get started, download Windows Update Minitool. Next, right-click on the downloaded ZIP file, select Extract All, and then click on the Extract button. This will extract the ZIP file to a new folder in the same directory.
Open the extracted folder and double-click on the wumt_x64.exe file. This will open the Windows Update MiniTool application. In the application window, click on the Refresh icon.
As soon as you click on the icon, the tool will check and list all the available updates for your system. You can see the size of each update under the Size section.
Note: The application may sometimes show cumulative update size in GBs. That is inaccurate as Windows 10 & 11 only downloads the updates not installed on your system. Usually, the update size will not be more than a few hundred megabytes.
Apart from showing Windows update sizes, the application will also allow you to download, install, hide, or uninstall an update. For instance, you can hide a specific Windows update if you don’t want to install it. To do that, select the checkbox next to the update and click on the Hide icon.
Alternate download link — https://majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_update_minitool.html
That is all. It is that simple to find the Windows update size in Windows 10.
If you like this article, check out how to pause Windows 10 updates and how to show download and upload speed on the taskbar.
Update: The instructions are updated to match the updates to Windows and PSWindowsUpdate module.
