Windows 7 getting fat

If you installed a lot of programs, it could also be a growth of the winsxs folder ( in C:>windows>winsxs). Mine is already 4GBs and I have installed hardly anything yet.

whs said:

If you installed a lot of programs, it could also be a growth of the winsxs folder ( in C:>windows>winsxs). Mine is already 4GBs and I have installed hardly anything yet.

Greets WHS

My winsxs is currently 11 gigs. Im constantly installing and un-installing. there isn't much that you can do with it except not install.

Good seeing you here

Ken

Ken, thanks for the warm welcome. Yes, the winsxs can really grow and it is often forgotten in the count. My Vista winsxs is 15GBs now. The total imaging footprint of that Vista is 60GBs.

Im about due for a clean install anyway so... Guess I gotta bite the bullet and install 7600, and vista sp2 on another box.

I have tried deleting the backup in winsxs and it doesn't affect anything UNLESS the current is corrupted. Since I do daily backcups a resotre from true image or win 7 takes maybe 30 minnutes.

Ken

My Windows folder is 15GB, so 17GB doesn't seem too adnormal to me... The winsxs folder takes up 5.75GB of that on my system.

Right-click your WINDOWS folder and select Properties.
Is there any shadow copy under PREVIOUS VERSIONS tab?

To remove shadow copies using the command line..

1) Open an elevated command prompt ("cmd" + ctl-shift-enter)
2) At the command prompt, type "wmic", after some time "wmic:root\cli>" will appear
3) Type "shadowcopy", 4) it will display a list of existing shadow copies
4) Type "shadowcopy delete"
5) one by one, it will give a "Y/N" style prompt, confirming the deletion of each individual shadow copy.
6) Type "exit" to get back to normal command prompt

Too see a list of "shadowcopy" command options, type "shadowcopy /?"

WARNING: This will delete all your previous shadow copies permanently..

Hi Adeon,

mine is as fat aus your system. If you have a 64bit installation, a complete 32bit system is installed, too. Windows needs all these files to run properly (e.g. 32Bit applications, DirectX 9 and 11 together, ...)

I advice you not to touch any system files or folders (excluding temp).
I think we have to accept that this Windows eats up our computers.
If you want a light-weight performance-system coose Win XP

Greeting

You guys might want to take a look at this link to see if your WinSXS folder is really taking up as much space as you think or whether your tools to evaluate disk space usage are really just misrepresenting the facts of the WinSXS folder:

WinSxS Disk Space Usage: It’s Not What You Think (David's Blog)

rangerevo8 said:

Right-click your WINDOWS folder and select Properties.
Is there any shadow copy under PREVIOUS VERSIONS tab?

To remove shadow copies using the command line..

1) Open an elevated command prompt ("cmd" + ctl-shift-enter)
2) At the command prompt, type "wmic", after some time "wmic:root\cli>" will appear
3) Type "shadowcopy", 4) it will display a list of existing shadow copies
4) Type "shadowcopy delete"
5) one by one, it will give a "Y/N" style prompt, confirming the deletion of each individual shadow copy.
6) Type "exit" to get back to normal command prompt

Too see a list of "shadowcopy" command options, type "shadowcopy /?"

WARNING: This will delete all your previous shadow copies permanently..

This is good advice for removing the shadows. Problem is, they come back and after a few days you are back to square one. If you really want to suppress the writing of shadows, you have to rezise the shadowstorage with the VSSAMIN RESIZE command. Note that you have to allocate at least 300MBs though.