Windows 7 is Hungry

[UrbanBounca]

I've had Windows 7 installed for a month or so now, and I've noticed that my HD space is slowly decreasing, although I'm not downloading anything at all. Does Windows 7 have a temporary folder that's always hungry?

 

[derekimo]

Do you have System Protection turned on? Could be a bunch of restore points.

 

[myzr7]

I think it is the indexing services.

 

[SIW2]

Yes, It is a fair size - doesn't seem that big when first installed. It grows - if you are not used to Vista , you may not have come across that before.

 

[UrbanBounca]

No, I went from XP directly to Windows 7. How do I keep it from growing?

 

[Capella]

stop creating system restore points
start menu>advanced system settings>system protection>disable

 

[Cato]

Rather than stop making System Restore points wouldn't it be better to clear them out on a regular basis? System Restore can save your bacon in fast, seamless manner at times.

 

[SIW2]

The fact Shadow copies could be taking a lot of space was already in the first response.

If that is the case, then limiting the space allocated for Shadow copies may help.

Even with no shadow copies, 7 gets bigger that the original size at installation - partly due to updates , and the programs you have installed. The winsxs folder grows quite a bit.

 

[stormy13]

Rather than stop making System Restore points wouldn't it be better to clear them out on a regular basis? System Restore can save your bacon in fast, seamless manner at times.

That and unless a program/update install triggers one, Windows 7 only creates a restore pint once every seven days,

Scheduled restore points

System Restore can be configured to create restore points at regular intervals. Users can also manually create and name a restore point at any time from within the System Restore user interface. These restore points are saved and compressed, and these choices are available to the user through the System Restore user interface. System Restore in Windows 7 creates a scheduled restore point only if no other restore points have been created in the last 7 days. System Restore in Windows Vista creates a checkpoint every 24 hours if no other restore points were created that day. System Restore in Windows XP creates a checkpoint every 24 hours of absolute time.

Restore Points (Windows)

 

[whs]

The winsxs folder is just an index. I would not worry about that. The winsxs size is deceptive, it represents the sum of all the folders it indexes but winsxs itself is very small.

Eliminating all restore points is a mistake. I would leave at least 5GBs. You can set it with the slider. Type System Protection into start/search and go to Create a restore point. From there go to Configure and move the slider such that you have 5GB. At the same time turn system protection on (first option on top - same window as slider).
Note: you will lose your current restore points with that operation (any manipulation of the shadowstorage has that effect). But the system will write new ones (one per day and one per install - program or update). So you should have a few soon. Besides, you can create one whilst you are in that window.