Solved Can I remove C:\Windows\winsxs

[pacinitaly]

I hardly have any programs

 

[phynestein]

I'm sorry to necro bump this thread but I really have a bone to pick on this topic. I have looked far and wide for a legit response to the winsxs problem only to find the suggestions of: "Get a larger HardDrive they are so cheep!!!" or "Live with it". These are not helpful at all.

I built my system for performance and I plan on peaking that performance in the near future. To that end, I purchased Win Vista 64 Ultimate and now I am going to put 4 32 gb SSDs in a Raid 0. 128 GB of storage is going to be filled up very quickly. I have an external USB 1 TB for my long term storage (music, videos, etc) but just program files, Vista and the Winsxs are going to take up more than 70gb... (I currently have a vista box that has a 15gb winsxs folder...).

So is the conclusion of the community and the devs that Vista is not for performance?

I would like to salute the only response that has done some good. I ran the compcln.exe program on my old box and it removed just over 1gb of data. So instead of over 15gb, my winsxs folder is over 14gb...

I guess my only conclusion is to make an image of a fresh Vista install and every few months overwrite the bloaded winsxs install with the fresh one.

c'est la vie

 

[whs]

I'm sorry to necro bump this thread but I really have a bone to pick on this topic. I have looked far and wide for a legit response to the winsxs problem only to find the suggestions of: "Get a larger HardDrive they are so cheep!!!" or "Live with it". These are not helpful at all.

I built my system for performance and I plan on peaking that performance in the near future. To that end, I purchased Win Vista 64 Ultimate and now I am going to put 4 32 gb SSDs in a Raid 0. 128 GB of storage is going to be filled up very quickly. I have an external USB 1 TB for my long term storage (music, videos, etc) but just program files, Vista and the Winsxs are going to take up more than 70gb... (I currently have a vista box that has a 15gb winsxs folder...).

So is the conclusion of the community and the devs that Vista is not for performance?

I would like to salute the only response that has done some good. I ran the compcln.exe program on my old box and it removed just over 1gb of data. So instead of over 15gb, my winsxs folder is over 14gb...

I guess my only conclusion is to make an image of a fresh Vista install and every few months overwrite the bloaded winsxs install with the fresh one.

c'est la vie

Your approach amounts to not installing any programs in the first place. The growth of the winsxs comes from programs you install over time. So if you refrain from doing that, winsxs will not grow. The 1GB that the compcln.exe found were most likely language versions. Those you can live without.

 

[roy69]

I'm sorry to necro bump this thread but I really have a bone to pick on this topic. I have looked far and wide for a legit response to the winsxs problem only to find the suggestions of: "Get a larger HardDrive they are so cheep!!!" or "Live with it". These are not helpful at all.

I built my system for performance and I plan on peaking that performance in the near future. To that end, I purchased Win Vista 64 Ultimate and now I am going to put 4 32 gb SSDs in a Raid 0. 128 GB of storage is going to be filled up very quickly. I have an external USB 1 TB for my long term storage (music, videos, etc) but just program files, Vista and the Winsxs are going to take up more than 70gb... (I currently have a vista box that has a 15gb winsxs folder...).

So is the conclusion of the community and the devs that Vista is not for performance?

I would like to salute the only response that has done some good. I ran the compcln.exe program on my old box and it removed just over 1gb of data. So instead of over 15gb, my winsxs folder is over 14gb...

I guess my only conclusion is to make an image of a fresh Vista install and every few months overwrite the bloaded winsxs install with the fresh one.

c'est la vie

Your approach amounts to not installing any programs in the first place. The growth of the winsxs comes from programs you install over time. So if you refrain from doing that, winsxs will not grow. The 1GB that the compcln.exe found were most likely language versions. Those you can live without.

Deleting lanuage files and install logs that I know I am not going to need is one of the first things I get rid of.
I also get rid of the sample music and video files that comes with vista.
If you look deep enough there is alot you can remove, do you really need a desktop made up of little tiles of checks.

 

[pacinitaly]

I don't get it:huh:

 

[phynestein]

Your approach amounts to not installing any programs in the first place. The growth of the winsxs comes from programs you install over time. So if you refrain from doing that, winsxs will not grow. The 1GB that the compcln.exe found were most likely language versions. Those you can live without.

I have heard this in one form or another several times before. On my old Vista box (15 gb winsxs) I have installed and uninstalled many programs and I have only seen this folder get larger and larger and never get smaller.

My approach is not tantamount to never install any programs, its that I keep seeing this folder get larger and no reliable way to get it smaller other than to reinstall. Since I'm not willing to take such a ludicrous approach (i.e. reinstall once a month), I'll do the only remaining option: make an image of my Vista build and reflash it from time to time (takes about 5 minutes to do as opposed to the all day process of reinstalling an OS and setting all the software back up).

Deleting lanuage files and install logs that I know I am not going to need is one of the first things I get rid of.
I also get rid of the sample music and video files that comes with vista.
If you look deep enough there is alot you can remove, do you really need a desktop made up of little tiles of checks.

I've done all this and my folder went from over 15gb to over 14gb, still way too large. I've tried a few 3rd party programs, various techniques and the Microsoft proposed techniques/programs and nothing has lowered it to a sensible level.

Essentially, I have been battling with this old box having only a few gb available on my system disk for a year now and I don't see how I'm going to be able to make a sensibly priced performance computer with my 4x SSDs. That is what leads me to the conclusion that Vista was not designed for a performance system... This conclusion is saddening and maddening because I like the Vista build, I think there are many good features, but this on feature is almost inhibitory of the performance I want.

 

[Ex_Brit]

The winsxs folder in Vista and Windows 7 takes over from other folders used on earlier systems and as it is a system folder that is referred to by many applications, I would leave it well alone.

Google brings up a lot of information about it but this one is the simplest: The Secret Of Windows 7 / Vista Winsxs Folder.

 

[tahir2023]

Here is a tip worked for me. It is capable both Vista & 7.

When you first install your Vista/7 permanently disable Volume Shadow Copy service and stop useless System Restore. This is a working way to protect your system hard drive space.

 

[hotajanmejaya]

i think we can remove "softwaredistribution" folder from C:\WINDOWS if you don't want to uninstall the windows update.

 

[dar270785]

hi everyone.

i've been researching the winsxs folder as well.
and i found that the size displayed in explorer or cmd using dir is wrong.
most of the file inside winsxs are hard links Hard link - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

i have found to different disk space usage for my system.
first i checked the disk space usage using the disk properties.
then went system drive in explorer, selected all folders (best change folder options to show hidden files and folders) and right click, then select properties.

my current disk space usage, using disk properties, is 19.7GB.
my disk space usage, using properties of files and folders, is 23.7GB. thats a difference of 4GB.

the 4GB difference must be the winsxs folder. although my winsxs is taking up 6.42GB some files inside winsxs must be actual files and not hard links.

i hope this helps everyone

 

[pacinitaly]

capture is just the folder
capture2 is all the files in the folder


looks the same to me:huh:

 

[dar270785]

no like this

 

[Ex_Brit]

I multi-boot 2 Vista x64 and 2 Win 7 x64 and the sizes of the winsxs folder in each are 9.86, 10.4, (Vista 1 and 2) 6.40 and 6.42gb (Win 7 1 and 2) respectively. As this thread is about that particular folder and as it is a system folder, I repeat, leave it alone. Anyone encrypting or compressing drives to save space, I advise against that because it can cause major problems, also do not use registry cleaners and/or optimizers as they surely will screw up your system, believe me.

If the hard drive is seemingly filling up with mysterious files then I suggest scanning for malware first, and if that fails, formatting and reinstalling Windows and all its updates.

Download, install, update (very important) and then run the free version of this software: Malwarebytes because it sounds to me like something is seriously wrong with these rigs.

 

[cyberdyne]

I apprecate that the answer to the majority of the questions here regarding the Winsxs folder is to "leave it alone", but it's frustrating that in my case, I am now unfortunately going to have to spend money in order to keep my Vista system running smoothly.

My laptop came with a 70GB HDD and while that should be sufficient to run a Vista installation, my Winsxs folder is now almost 15GB! Thus, I now have an 75% full HDD and my system is beginning to perform poorly. (My complete Windows folder is almost 24GB)

It's a shame M$ never addressed this issue and provided some sort of solution so that people in my situation - and I'm sure there are many - are not forced to part with hard earned cash simply to keep their systems running (or is there an alteria M$ motive?!).

 

[netznozid]

I really wana free up those 20,000+ files and gain 4gig of hard drive space.

I only use my computer for internet (wireless) and printing...nothing else...please explain about that folder and if i can delete or not

Thanks,
netz

 

[whs]

I really wana free up those 20,000+ files and gain 4gig of hard drive space.

I only use my computer for internet (wireless) and printing...nothing else...please explain about that folder and if i can delete or not

Thanks,
netz

Read thru the previous posts and you will find the answer which is DO NOT TOUCH IT. Now if you are a super geek, you can find a few files within winsxs which are deletable and not vital to the system - but is it worth to risk your system.

Here is some reading: What is the WINSXS directory in Windows 2008 and Windows Vista and why is it so large? - Ask the Core Team - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/arch...in-Windows-XP,-Vista-and-Server-20032008.html

 

[wittzi]

Yes you can, but running the following:

DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /SpSuperseded

I cant believe the amount of garbage that all the other posts (all over the net) say about this folder.

 

[pacinitaly]

Yes you can, but running the following:

DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /SpSuperseded

I cant believe the amount of garbage that all the other posts (all over the net) say about this folder.

what will this do?

 

[Brink]

Yes you can, but running the following:

DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /SpSuperseded

I cant believe the amount of garbage that all the other posts (all over the net) say about this folder.

This is only for cleaning up the Windows 7 SP1 backup and uninstall data from the winsxs folder.

Windows 7 SP1 Disk Cleanup Tool - Windows 7 Forums

DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /SpSuperseded - Google Search

 

[pacinitaly]

Right On Shawn !!!!!