WinSxs Folder consuming enormous disk space

Anonymous
2008-12-24T21:21:38+00:00

My WinSxs folder under Windows directory is consuming 10GB of disk space. We all know that Windows root folder is the system root directory. What is WinSxs? Is there any work around to clear up the free space from this folder? If it keeps building up with this rate, I can see my primary partition being being full very soon. Is there anything that I can do to get back this disk space?

hrishi

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2008-12-25T03:50:29+00:00

Hi Hrishz,

I’ve attached a link below that explains the purpose of the WinSxs folder:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374224.aspx

You can use the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) Files Removal Tool which has resulted in some people having more free space in the WinSxs folder. The downside is that after doing this you will be unable to uninstall SP1, you should have SP1 installed anyways so if this isn’t a problem proceed with the steps listed below:

1.       Click Start

2.       In the “Start Search” box type VSP1CLN.exe and then press Enter

3.       In the command prompt that opens type “Y” for yes to perform the clean up

Here is a article about this:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709655.aspx

You can also take a look at another post about this same issue in the forums, link below:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaperformance/thread/e473cda6-94d5-4e6a-9ce8-97cf876174a0

Hope this helps. : )

If you have any further questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Brian

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-05-14T12:57:55+00:00

    Reply to this one, Brian engineer.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-05T01:44:48+00:00

    WinSxS Folder

    The WinSxs is the central file repository for Windows. All files installed are placed into the WinSxS folder including updated files. So you'll have lots of different versions of each file allowing you to roll back Windows updates and service packs to any previous state.

    The current version of a file is hardlinked to the appropiate place in the rest of the file system. A hardlink is a file name. All files have at least one hardlink. Windows system files have two hard links, one in WinSxS and one in (usually) c:\windows\system32. Both names point to the same bytes on disk.

    As the files have two names they are counted twice by explorer, once in System32 and once in WinSxS.

    There are other uses for it as well. It allows multiple programs to use different versions of dlls.

    Ensure Pending Operations are Completed

    Try a reboot. Before rebooting set the trustedInstaller service (DisplayName Windows Modules Installer) startup to automatic. Normally it's manual unless an operation such as windows update requires boot time install.

    Click Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Promptand choose Run As Administrator. Type (or copy the below line and one blank line underneath and right click in the command prompt window and choose Paste).

    sc config trustedinstaller start= auto

    Then Reboot

    System Update Readiness Tool

    Ensures the consistancy of the WinSxS (Side by Side) folder. 

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows7/What-is-the-System-Update-Readiness-Tool

    For 32 bit Windows

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=504

    For 64 bit Windows

    http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=1540

    To see results click Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. Type (or copy the below line and one blank line underneath and right click in the command prompt window and choose Paste).

    notepad %SYSTEMROOT%\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log

    Afterwards delete this folder to reclaim 100 MB.

    del "C:\Windows\CheckSur" /s

    Start the Scavenger

    Adding or removing a Windows feature from Control Panel - Programs and Features initiates a scavenging operation on Vista.

    Sizes Are Not What They Seem

    Files in WinSxS are usually hardlinked files. A hard link is a filename. Every file has at least one hard link. Files in system32 and files in WinSxS are usually hardlinks to the same file. Therefore you count the same file in system32 and WinSxS twice.

    Remove files updated by Service Packs

    To see how much space it taking up type what's below and note the total size (because it will scroll away). Also note that the total is higher than it actually is. This will remove the ability to uninstall the service packs.

    Start - All Programs - Accessories - Right click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. Type (or copy and paste by right clicking in the Command Prompt window and choosing Paste).

    dir c:\Windows\WinSxS /a /s

    Then type

    VSP1CLN.exe

    COMPCLN.exe

    Then to see the new size and compare to the old size

    dir c:\windows\WinSxS /a /s

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-05-05T00:48:05+00:00

    I`m using Vista Home SP2 !

    What is cmd or .exe to be used on SP2 ???

    Thanks !

    Morais

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