3 replies to this topic

[audienceofone]

First, thanks for a great program. I've just switched to an Intel X25E with Vista 64. Space is tight and I've just found out about the nightmare called winsxs....a folder that is highly efficient at swallowing up premium hard disk space. Mine is currently 10gigs! I've read that it can grow to 20gigs. Can CCleaner find a way to get rid of the junk that builds up in this folder?

[hazelnut]

There is some info about this here

http://www.winvistaclub.com/f16.html

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So obviously you cannot delete this directory or move it elsewhere. Nor is it advisable to delete anything here, as such a step could probably make your applications un-workable or even break your system! If you have many applications installed, you can expect to have a jumbo sized winsxs folder.

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The safest way to clean it, is by simply uninstalling applications which you don't require. However, this too is not fool proof, as many applications still leave behind their files here, since they may be shared between other applications. So the probability of dud unused dll's being left behind is quite high

[audienceofone]

hazelnut, on Dec 11 2008, 06:12 PM, said:

There is some info about this here

http://www.winvistaclub.com/f16.html

Hi....yes, I have been reading up a lot about this folder. The problem is that it is protected and that it just keeps growing as it can not differentiate between what is useful and what is junk. Sounds like mission to me!

No problem if you have a big hard drive, but I've just got an Intel X25E and its only 30GB. The file that can range from 4gb to over 20gb. Yes it's a harmless way of avoiding conflicts if you have ulimited hard disk space but if you are like me it's really frustrating to be carring a lot of junk files.

My Intel works out at £16 per GB. Currently my winsxs file is 10gb.......or £160!!!! If it grows to 20gb thats £320!!!

Even with lower cost and larger capacity ssd drives this is a problem.

The same problem will exist with Windows 7 from what I've been told as it also uses winsxs.

[audienceofone]

For anyone that is interested, I have recorded the size of the Winsxs from a fresh install to a fully loaded system........why? to try a find out what this folder grows to such a huge size.

It would seem that Vista itself is the primary reason for the Winsxs file to grow to such huge sizes and by some quite surprising margins. For example 215mb of updates equates to a 3.4GB increase in the Winsxs folder!

The winsxs file topped out at around 13GB to 14GB when all updates had been applied including SP1 & SP2......roughly 60% of the entire Windows folder (21GB).

It seems a bit lame that Vista can’t sort itself out when updating itself without huge apparent duplication (?)

Vista 64 Ultimate install:
Winsxs size: 5.10GB
Files: 29,673
Folders: 8,032
SP1 install (Full SP, file size 744mb)
Winsxs size: 8.46GB
Files: 46,062
Folders: 12,909
Post SP1 Updates (Total file size 215mb)
Winsxs size: 11.86GB
Files: 49,865
Folders: 13,825
SP2 install (Full SP, file size 629mb)
Winsxs size: 14.2GB
Files: 56,925
Folders: 15,925
Office 2007, Photoshop, Cyberlink, Live care
Winsxs size: 13.6GB
Files: 56,101
Folders: 15,754
Office 2007 SP1 and SP2 updates & Call of Duty W@W Plus 1.1 patch
Winsxs size: 13.7GB
Files: 56,174
Folders: 15,757