Solved Disk Cleanup is lazy

[RoWin7]

I ran the Disk Cleanup for the 1st time because I usually toss junk manually. Recycle Bin, temp files, etc were emptied, but the Windows\winsxs folder is unchanged, still has 13.2 GB of files. These are old update files, aren't they? And i know doing them manually is not recommended.

NVM--I see the same issue 4 threads below.

 

[Barman58]

Tip, do not believe the folder size reported for winsxs - this folder is part of the Windows Virtualisation system for Link libraries - It contains mostly symbolic links to files that are actually stored elsewhere. Due to the way that explorer treats these links, It shows the size of the file linked to rather than the size of the link file in the winsxs folder.

A winsxs folder that shows gigabytes of content will actually contain a few hundred kilobytes of links.

The .dll files linked to are the variations of each one that is modified over time and allows windows applications to find the correct version in one place whilst not filling the disc with multiple copies of the same file ( or versions thereof )

If you look at the folder using a file manager that is unaware of symbolic links then you will see the true size of the folder - you can try a bootable linux file manager as they often do not see symbolic links as they are designed to display - though the same can be said for some older Windows file managers

 

[Ranger4]

RoWin7. Disc Clean up only removes files when the computer shuts down.

The best way to run Disc Clean up it to run it as Administrator, then when it's finished & it has deleted the files, reboot your computer & you will probably see some notation on the screen, before it closes & starts the reboot.

 

[RoWin7]

Even if they were elsewhere, there were still 72,387 files or file links. Don't know anything about Linux; I'm using Windows Explorer.

Ran as Admin, rebooted, DC did its thing, now there are 68,342 Files in 17,305 Folders.

They date from original OS in2009, the building of this puter in 10/16, and updates during the 2 months since I have it. It's unlikely I'll uninstall any of the oldest updates.

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I don't have an amd, BTW, an Intel.

 

[Callender]

The only official way to clean WINSXS is via Extended Disk Cleanup > Windows Update Clean

You need to make sure that update KB2852386 is installed to use this. It's the official MS way to clean WINSXS.

​

Disk Cleanup : Extended

If you want to try anything else you'd better have a system image backup that you can restore. You might not notice any problems until next time you try to install Windows Updates and you could end up with a non booting system at that point.

Barman58 already explained pretty much what goes in in WINSXS but you could read this:

WinSxS Folder in Windows 10/8/7 explained

Explorer and other space sniffing apps cannot accurately determine the size of WINSXS. Each utility you run might show different results.

 

[johnhoh]

to summarize ...

start > run > %SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535 > check all > enter

... and you're done

 

[RoWin7]

@Callender--Good article! I thought they were accumulated junk, like the old KB install files in XP. If they're necessary, I have no problem leaving them. This HD is 100 GB, and I have only 45 filled after 21 years of computing.


I've never thought of Windows as a club, more like a low-security prison.

 

[RoWin7]

to summarize ...

start > run > %SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535 > check all > enter

... and you're done

Isn't that the same as the Disk Cleanup I've already done?

 

[johnhoh]

yes just the same, just wanted to simplify it to one line for posterity