Compress Windows folder?

[cclloyd9785]

Can I compress the Windows folder or at least the Winsxs folder? Like right clicking, and under attributes> compress without any harm to the system?

 

[logicearth]

No....and compressing the Winsxs folder is not smart. Pretty much everything in Winsxs is a hardlink. You alter those files you alter everything that links to those files. Also the size reported in folder properties is incorrect and inflated.

 

[whs]

winsxs is essentially a directory of (mainly) .dlls. And the real size of it is pretty small. What you see is the composite size of all the linked files. I would not mess with it.

 

[cclloyd9785]

Ok, then is there any way to reduce the size of the Windows OS on my drive?

 

[whs]

For starters I would delete the hibernation file. Use this command in eleveted Command prompt: powercfg -h off . That will save you a few GBs. What are you trying to accomplish? You can uninstall programs you do not use or slipstream the whole installation disk. There are many ways.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/819-hibernate-enable-disable.html

 

[cclloyd9785]

Well I cant do that, because I'm on a laptop, and use it because i only turn it off if i need to restart, otherwise i hibernate.

 

[Tepid]

Then my only recommendation is get a bigger drive.
Using Windows Compression on anything on the drive (in my opinion) is a bad idea.

I have seen many corruption issues when trying to go back and uncompressing.
Especially when someone doesn't realize what they are doing and they don't have enough space to uncompress and the data blows up. literally, and you lose it.

 

[whs]

Well I cant do that, because I'm on a laptop, and use it because i only turn it off if i need to restart, otherwise i hibernate.

You could use sleep mode instead.

 

[cclloyd9785]

No, because I dont want it to drain my battery, even a little bit.

 

[Packet]

check the size of your C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\
Download folder.
you can safely delete the contents of the Download folder.

They are the downloaded updates to be installed / that have been installed

 

[cclloyd9785]

Its only 200 Kb, because i clean that regularly with Tune Up Utilities

 

[Tews]

Sounds like you REALLY need a bigger drive ... sometimes you have to balance what you want with what you need... there have been several suggestions that you have rejected, so your options are somewhat limited.... Good luck!

 

[cclloyd9785]

Ok well I guess i try disabling hibernation. But am still considering a new drive (thats y I have the other topic)

 

[Packet]

move your pagefile to another drive?