WinSXS folder - 6GB - does this look right

[JayNYC]

Hi--
I know there have been many prior threads on the WinSXS folder. On my 32-bit Win7 machine, I just completed running Disk Cleanup in Administrative mode after installing KB2852386 (the update for Disk Cleanup). This is what my folder currently looks like running WinDirStat just now:

Is it possible to remove some of these files and regain disk space or is this 6GB WinSxs folder as small as it can get?

Thanks for any guidance.

 

[LMiller7]

Only 6 GB? Mine is somewhat larger than that.

But actually things are not as they appear. The NTFS file system has long had the capability for a single file to appear in more than one folder. That is the situation here. While the folder appears to contain 6 GB of files a large number of these are actually stored elsewhere and counted twice. Even if you could delete all of the files in WinSXS you would not save 6 GB.

 

[whs]

Mine is 15GB. With 6GB you are well served - but it will grow. Each time you download and install a program, you will get entries (.dlls) in winsxs. But when you uninstall that program, the entries will not go away.