Cleaning up my system

[GRoston]

I took a look at my system disk today using WinDirState (a great program!). I found the following two things of 'interest':

1. The WinSXS folder 18 18+GB in size, meaning that it is consuming 42% of the \Windows folder and is almost as large as the Program Files folders. As you might imagine, a large number of the folders in WinSXS are more than a decade old. I have looked at cleaning this up and have used the built-in disk cleanup tool. Is it possible for me to be more aggressive or should I simply leave it alone?
2. The folder MSOCache is using 1.9 GB, but nothing in that folder has been accessed for three years, despite the fact that I used MS Office almost daily. Can this folder be deleted? Can anything else be done?

I am not short on disk space, just looking to clean things up a bit...

 

[Bree]

...The WinSXS folder 18 18+GB in size, meaning that it is consuming 42% of the \Windows folder and is almost as large as the Program Files folders.

Actually no, your WinSxS folder is not really that large, despite both WinDirStat and Explorer reporting the same size. This is because the WinSxS folder contains multiple hardlinks that make a single file appear in multiple folders (and each instance gets counted towards the total size).

Why is the WinSxS folder so big? ....


For operating system files, it can appear that more than one copy of the same version of a file is stored in more than one place on the operating system, but there’s usually only one real copy of the file. The rest of the copies are just “projected” by hard linking from the component store. A hard link is a file system object that lets two files refer to the same location on disk. Some tools, such as the File Explorer, determine the size of directories without taking into account that the contained files might be hard linked.

Determine the Actual Size of the WinSxS Folder | Microsoft Docs

Unfortunately the tools to determine the true size of WinSxS weren't added to DISM until Windows 8.1, as that link goes on to say...

A new option has been added to the DISM tool for Windows 8.1 to help determine how much disk space the WinSxS folder really uses.

As you might imagine, a large number of the folders in WinSXS are more than a decade old. I have looked at cleaning this up and have used the built-in disk cleanup tool. Is it possible for me to be more aggressive or should I simply leave it alone?

Having said that, your 18GB is a little on the large size, half that size would be typical. You should never try cleaning it up yourself, only with the tools MS provides. Manually deleting files/folders in WinSxS will break your system. See if you have done everything in this tutorial.

Windows Updates - Remove Outdated Updates in Windows 7