How to Fix Cannot Delete System Queued Windows Error Reporting Files

Some users report that they are unable to delete the System queued Windows Error Reporting File when trying to free up some space using Disk Cleanup. This might not seem like a big deal, but some affected users report that this file is growing in size with each passing week and there’s no apparent way to get rid of it.

This particular issue is often reported on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. There are some cases where the System queued Windows Error Reporting File was reported to have over 200 GB in size.

What are System Queued Windows Error Reporting files?

System queued Windows Error Report files are used for error reporting and solution checking in all recent Windows version. While their deletion will not affect the normal functionality of your OS, removing them might prevent built-in troubleshooters and other utilities from applying the correct repair strategy.

What’s causing the System Queued Windows Error Reporting files issue?

After looking at various user reports and trying to replicate the issue, we noticed a few scenarios that were often confirmed to be responsible for the apparition of this issue. Here’s a list with culprits that are most likely causing this odd behavior:

• Disk Cleanup doesn’t have administrative privileges – This is known to happen when the user tries to run disk cleanup without granting admin access to the utility.
• Disk Cleanup utility is glitched – In this particular case, you have the option of navigating to the location of the files and delete them manually.
• Windows 7 and 8 log file compression bug – Windows 7 has a long-standing bug in the Trusted Installer log that can cause your hard drive to fill up for no apparent reason.

How to delete the System Queued Windows Error Reporting files

If you’re struggling to resolve this particular issue, this article will show you a few repair strategies that others have found helpful. Below you have a collection of methods that other users in a similar situation have used to get the issue resolved.

For the best results, start with the first methods and if it’s ineffective, move down to the next ones in order until you encounter a fix that is successful in resolving the issue for your particular scenario. Let’s begin!

Method 1: Run Disk Cleanup with administrative privileges

In the vast majority of cases, the issue is caused by a privilege issue. A lot of users have reported that the issue was fixed as soon as they opened the Disk Cleanup utility with administrative privileges.

As it turns out, Disk Cleanup will be unable to remove a couple of system files unless the user grants it admin access. Here’s a quick guide on how to do so:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Next, type “cleanmgr” and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Disk Cleanup with administrative privileges.

   

2. When prompted by the UAC (User Account Control), choose Yes to accept.
3. Now, select the System Queued Windows Error Reporting Files and schedule them for cleanup. You should be able to delete them without issue.

If you’re still encountering the same issue, continue down with the next method below.

Method 2: Deleting the files manually

If the first method is not effective, you might have better luck by deleting the System queued Windows Error Reporting files manually. Some users have reported that the  System queued Windows Error Reporting Files where gone from Disk Cleanup after they manually browsed and delete them from their locations.

Here’s a quick guide on how to do this:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Then, paste “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue” and hit Enter to open up the Report Queue folder.

   

   Note: If this command is not recognized, try this one instead: “%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue“

2. If you manage to find any subfolders or files in this folder, delete them immediately and empty your Recycle Bin.
3. Reboot your machine and return to the Disk Cleanup utility at the next startup. You should no longer see any System queued Windows Error Reporting files recommended for deletion.

If this method wasn’t effective, continue down with the next method below.

Method 3: Resolving the Windows 7 and 8 log bug

If you’re encountering this issue on Windows 7 and Windows 8, you should know that Microsoft has had this bug for a couple of years for now without releasing a hotfix.

Whenever this bug occurs, a series of log files will grow to an enormous size. But what’s even worse is that even if you delete those logs, Windows will kick in and start generating those files again (often times more aggressive than before) until you run out of space.

Luckily, there’s one manual fix that seems to have helped a lot of users to resolve the issue permanently. This method involves stopping the Windows Modules Installer service and renaming all logs to stop Windows from choking on oversized log files. Here’s a quick guide through the whole thing:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Then, type “services.msc” and press Enter to open up the Services screen. If prompted by the UAC (User Account Control), choose Yes.
   

   

2. Inside the Services screen, scroll down through the list of services to locate the Windows Modules Installer service. Once you do so, double-click on it to open the Properties menu.
3. Once you’re inside the properties menu, go to the General tab and click on Stop to turn off the Windows Modules Installer service (under Service status).

   

4. Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\ Windows \ Logs \ CBS
   Note: If Windows is installed on a different drive, adapt the location accordingly.
5. In the CBS folder, move or rename all files. You can rename it anything as long as you preserve the “.log” extension.

   

6. When prompted by the UAC (User Account Control), choose Yes
    
7. Navigate to C:\ Windows \ Temp and delete all “.cab” files that are currently residing in the Temp folder.
8. Restart your computer and return to the Disk Cleanup utility at the next startup. You should no longer see a big System queued Windows Error Reporting entry.

If this particular method didn’t allow you to resolve the issue, move down to the final method below.

Method 4: Perform a repair install

If none of the methods above have allowed you to get the issue resolved, we’re down to the last resort. Given the fact that all the popular fixes presented above have failed, it’s very likely that the issue is caused by an underlying system file corruption.

There are a few ways to try and fix system file corruption, but we recommend doing a Repair install since it’s faster and will most likely produce the expected results.

A repair install will replace all Windows-related component with fresh copies while allowing you to keep all your personal files including media, documents, and applications. If you decide to do a repair install, follow our step by step guide (here).