Not for me. It always has 2 or 3 MB after a restart and rescan.
Did you ever get the Windows Update Cleanup option to show in the disk cleanup utility?
Edit: Scratch that. After several restarts, rescans and cleanups, the disk cleanup utility no longer offers an entry for Windows Update Cleanup. I can see it scan for WU files, but I guess if there are none to be cleaned, one sees what the OP sees.
If I'm not mistaken, that's not all that's in Winsxs. It's what's call your side-by-side catalog. If you ever have a write corruption (disk or memory) Windows uses it to recover drivers. I have tons of programs and development packages on my system and you can see (above) I'm at less than 50% usage on a 120GB SSD. One space hog is your browser. Move the User Temp file that it uses off the SSD. It can frequently exceed 100-200MB per day. It adds up fast if you don't keep it clean. Also, frequent cleaning is hard on your SSD anyway.
You should manage your space or get a larger drive. But for sure, I wouldn't tamper with Winsxs. As all ready mentioned, you can't rely on the size displayed by Windows.
Last edited by carwiz; 02 Mar 2014 at 14:13. Reason: correction
Ah, okay. Thanks. Yes, I see it scan for Windows Updates, but then it displays no checkbox. I suppose this is typical (if not misleading) behaviour, then.Not for me. It always has 2 or 3 MB after a restart and rescan.
Did you ever get the Windows Update Cleanup option to show in the disk cleanup utility?
Edit: Scratch that. After several restarts, rescans and cleanups, the disk cleanup utility no longer offers an entry for Windows Update Cleanup. I can see it scan for WU files, but I guess if there are none to be cleaned, one sees what the OP sees.
Carwiz, I run CCleaner regularly to remove temp files. I do maintain my system well. It's just that I have a 120GB SSD (110GB usable) with many things loaded on it, as this is a media-projects and school laptop. I have a couple of ongoing projects on the drive that are 10GB each, as well as large suites like Photoshop/Flash/Audition/Fruityloops. That's why space is of such concern. I offload my media libraries and so forth to my 5TB external dock, but I need to keep some things locally so that I can work on them on-the-go. I'm not looking to expand my SSD to be quite honest, even though 256GB drives are at a great pricepoint currently. My next upgrade will be to a reasonably-priced and fast 512GB drive, whose price will drop when consumer 1TB SSDs start rolling out.
What I was looking for specifically was a way to remove needless backups. E.g., if I download a 1GB update for Office, then I'd like it to replace what's installed—not duplicate it. I.e., if Office takes up 1.5GB and then is amended with a 1.0GB update, the install should still remain at about ~1.5GB... not 2.5GB, because the old components were mirrored into another section of the harddrive in case I decide to uninstall the latest update. This is silly behaviour. Does it really do that? Am I wrong? That's what my research turned up, and what seemed to happen after I installed big updates. I was looking for a way to battle that forced redundancy "feature" of Windows.
Office doesn't have updates anywhere near 1GB in size - even the Service Packs are at most about 400MB, and almost all of those updates would have been installed already, unless the Office install was new.
Most Office updates are well under 25MB in size, and often where a number of updates are related, the total update size change is significantly less than the quoted sum of the updates, since packages are re-used, or hardlinks created instead of generating new copies.
Even Office Pro 2013 x64 full install is under 1GB - so I don't know where you're getting you numbers from.
Ok, The folder winsxs is totaly pissing me off and I am close to clueless about OS and how they work but am a logical person and know that something is wrong here. I need a tech savy person to tell me how to fix this. I have the same issue with my winsxs folder as mentioned in this thread. I wanted to DL a program and it told me that there is not enough room on my system. I have a mini laptop which doesnt have alot of room in the first place so i set out to find out whats the issue since i only have a few programs on my computer. Guess what. Winsxs is filled to the brim. Now I see that some answers are saying that there its not really using the space. Ok fine its not. Can someone tell my system that. When i look at the properties it shows that 80 percent of all my space is coming from this folder. I have update folders in there from a few years ago. Now again not being a Microsoft programer I believe that updates that were installed years ago are not needed. You would think someone at MS whould have said hey bill what do you think about deleting update folders from years ago so a persons system is not overloaded. I scroll down in the winsxs and can sit there for 20 mins as it scrolls through the updates, Are these folders really needed. I would think they arent since windows seemed to work before i updated these things. You cant delete, Move, Change the name and delete. SO is it designed that it will consume your resouses so you get mad and buy a new computer? I feel its a scam like the spyware downloaded on your system that gives you a pop up with a number to call in order to get your system cleaned for two hundred dollars. There has to be a way. Please dont tell me its not effecting my system really because it really is ...Thanks.
Do you have SP1 installed? Is it updated fully?
If so, then use the DiskClean utility and do a full cleanup of system files.
To answer the question of what will happen if you force remove the WinSXS folder:
Using a VMWare, Windows 8.1, and Kali linux
I created a Windows 8.1 Virtual Machine and booted into Kali Linux.
Then I brought up the filesystem and removed the WinSXS folder from Windows 8.1.
See Attached for result.
Seeing that it is a virtual machine just revert to a snapshot
If anyone is still interested I will be trying to rebuild the WinSxS folder with just the bare necessities and see what happens. IF you are interested let me know and I will let you know. If enough respond I will post.
(This is my first post so if there any suggestions on how to improve my posting skills please let me know)
Sorry guys i had the wrong attachment
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