average size of winsxs windows 7 64-bit

[ron7000]

On my work computer, windows 7 pro 64-bit, which i have no admin control over, the winsxs folder is 20GB in size.

On one of my personal computers that have admin privilege to run disk cleanup on, as of 12/20/2017 the winsxs folder on that is 10GB in size, and I have done all the cleanup I can with the disk Cleanup tool - system files. If I try to do the
Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
or
dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

both give me an error code 87 and I do not have the "windows update cleanup" checkbox in the disk cleanup utility.

so what is the typical size one should expect winsxs to be ?
I read that "installing programs" causes winsxs to be larger in size, is that true that simply installing programs will do that and if so how much or what is the correlation of installed program to size in in winsxs? For example some < 2mb freeware program vs a 2gb game or CAD program install.

 

[torchwood]

Hi Ron,

The reported size of the SXS file is usually overstated.
NOBODY has Admin control over it either, ONLY TrustedInstaller
Doesn't matter that much, but can be reduced by running the inbuilt MS disk clean-up tool.
(it over-estimates because of Hardlinks)

DISM was never intended to fully run on standard W7 installs, Server versions - yes, hence the error code 87.

The best way to look at the size of your installed OS + all other programs is
Local Disk (usually C) right click Properties

Yes the size of SXS is increased by the installation of programs. Its not specifically incremental as it only adds the driver update option requirement, ie your display drivers.

Its actuall size is dependant on
W7 Version and Installed programs
The higher the version and more programs installed will increase its size


Roy

 

[Layback Bear]

Roy is correct.

This is a good read and might explain things a little different.

Window 7 64bit using 13.4GB space for Winsxs even after diskclean - Microsoft Community

All I do on my system with WinSXS is run the built in Disk Cleanup.
Windows 7 will clean what can and should be cleaned. What is left over, Windows 7 wants to keep.
Built in Windows 7 programs and methods such as Disk Cleanup are designed to protect Windows 7.

Some other methods, or 3rd party programs one finds online very well might do damage and create a door stop out of your computer.

Jack

 

[iko22]

Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
or
dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded

both give me an error code 87

Doesn't work on Windows 7 -- only available in Windows 8 and 10 -- and thats why you get error code 87

I read that "installing programs" causes winsxs to be larger in size

True, both installing and re-installing causes the directory to expand. Uninstalling is said to not always remove files from the winsxs folder.

--- BTW, for comparison my computer winsxs is 15.3GB. Down from 24GB (after diskcleanup).

 

[Pete4]

Double check Winsxs is compressed (should be different color if properly set up), if not not, make it so, should save couple gigs. Most of the stuff in that directory is completely useless, problem is knowing exactly which and with over 15000 entries not really worth the trouble looking over. Mine is 10.9 GB compressed.

 

[Barman58]

I have to explain the facts of the Winsxs folder every so often, looks like it's time for a refresh

The size of the Winsxs folder is misreported by Windows Explorer, as the folder contains mostly Symbolic Links that are about a KB in size - these are linked to files in other locations but as they are links, not standard shortcuts explorer reports the size of the remote file not the link itself. The reason for this system is that .DLL files are modified over time and you should always use the latest version for security and operational reasons.

What Winsxs does is store a Symbolic link to the latest version of a DLL. the name and properties of the symbolic link reports the name and version info of the older version to the OS but always serves the latest linked DLL - the same latest DLL can actually have more than one Symbolic Link in Winsxs

As a result of this the total amount of space reported is wrong If you have access to an OS that reports Symbolic links correctly (a linux live OS can sometimes be used), you can see he true size of the folder contents.

Yes there are things to be learned from the reported size of the Winsxs folder but any work on the actual folder will have minimal effect on the actual space usage the best way to keep the size of the Winsxs down is to clean up old program locations correctly when installing - A lot of uninstallers are very conservative and leave old DLL files scattered around the system folders regular use of Disk Cleanup in System Files mode is one way to actually reduce the apparent size of the Winsxs as is the use of programs such as Revo uninstaller

Just remember when dealing with Winsxs - IT REPORTS THE WRONG SIZE FOR THE LINKS STORED THERE

 

[Layback Bear]

Once again Nigel, very good explanation of Winsxs folder.

Can you make your post a Tutorial for information only?

Jack

 

[Barman58]

I will see if I can get something Together Jack - For all the sites as its a universal issue

 

[Layback Bear]

I will stick your post in bookmarks for the time being.

Jack

 

[SIW2]

You can reduce it using either Harkaz rebase tool
rebase_1.1.30.1.zip - Google Drive


or Dism++

Dism++ | New Windows Utility

 

[Pete4]

Under Win 10 there is a way to read actual folder size, corrected for symbolic links and when I did so on my system, the difference was less than 200MB on 6 GB folder (it was just updated with fall release, so it's like fresh install, I'm sure it will grow much bigger over time), so difference between reported and actual folder size may not be as big. And most of those files are totally useless: for example do I really need a 1394 AMD driver on Intel computer that does not have firewire at all?
One way to avoid all this is to use portable versions of apps whenever available: no installation so very little garbage left behind. Most popular apps like CC cleaner, Libre office etc have portable versions.