Cleaning up history helps to remove non-useful logs from a system. The process frees space for other important files. The idea may be for security purpose, to prevent people from knowing which sites you have visited or to remove logs of installations carried out on your system lately.
Image of Windows Update history in Windows 8
How to remove history from Windows Update is easy. It is different from the common way of removing histories from the web browsers - like the Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.
If you are interested in cleaning the history from your Windows Update this information is meant for you.
Image of Windows Key + R
STEP 1: Press Windows Key + R to open 'Run'.
Image of command or Run dialogue in Windows 8
STEP 2: Copy and paste %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore into 'Run' and click 'OK'.
Image of DataStore folder in Windows 8
STEP 3: Next the system will open the 'DataStore' folder.
Image of how to delete files from DataStore folder in Windows 8
STEP 4: At the next step highlight all files inside the 'DataStore' folder and select 'Delete' to remove everything.
Image of system cleaning up Windows update history in Windows 8
STEP 5: Close the folder and restart your system to clean up history.
Image of empty Windows update history in Windows 8
STEP 6: Go to your 'Control Panel' click 'Windows Update' and click 'View update history'.
Image of Windows checking for updates in Windows 8
STEP 7: At 'Windows Update' click 'Check for Updates' to repopulate the 'DataStore' folder with fresh system files.