Windows 7: HUGE 26 GB system folder :D :S

[RoutedScripter]

Hello

I am using Win7 64 bit for , 3 - 4 weeks

So the key notes:

I have Visual Studio 08 for learning (so I don't need ALL the stuff)
I installed the full package so it was a lot of stuff , but I uninstalled all things about SQL now.

I installed AVP 2010 game , which extracted 32 GB to D: partition , from 4GB of installer , but then it installed those extracted largefiles.rep and pcf to the game files which end up using 14,4 GB at the end.

So like the game was installing for 3 hours , yeah 3 hours , (i have a sata1 temporary 160 GB drive 2005.y) well it unpacked the files , then it builded the game but the process of building to 14gb was slow (10-14 MB/s)

So I already deleted , cleaned , temp folders , a lot of stuff now , something like 20 GB , uninstalled some stuff too , but the Windows folder stands firmly at 26,1 GB (it was like 100 mb more before)

Stuff like System restore is on it's minimum , D drive disabled , C drive 1% 1.22 GB (550MB used)

Page file is about 2.2 GB

Using a handy program like TreeSize , the curtain unfolds and I googled and these folders are common

Windows\

Installer = 7.1 GB
winsxs = 6.1 GB
Temp = 5.3 GB

of loads of installer packages of already installed stuff (obviously uninstaller wont be that large) and some "blabla9485858lol546omgwtf84872348" kind of files

 

[digibucc]

winsxs is fine, leave it
temp can be emptied, not deleted (anything that throws up an error, leave it)

my installer is only 500 mb, im guessing this houses windows updates - you may have it set not to delete them.
it would be safest to find that option and have it remove them, but idk where that is.
you should be able to delete a lot of the folders in there, but idk which ones

but if you google for that directory specifically, maybe you'll find something. the others are solved

 

[RoutedScripter]

There are loads of amd files in winsxs , i don't have AMD processor , but I have ATI gpu

Are those loads of ATI crossfire profiles that came something with 10.2 catalysts , for each game hah , lol.

 

[digibucc]

hmmm.... i have them too, on an i7. ati cards. but that doesn't explain it.

but there's a lot more than just those in there. and those aren't taking up the HDD space. i would(will) leave them alone - unless someone says different.

but there is a xml processing file , and a "backup" folder among others. those take up the space. idk what they are but i'd leave those as well.

 

[RoutedScripter]

So i searched and this is cause I installed some stuff about windows SDK ..

So the installer msi are getting duplicated


This is a graphical msizap.exe for deleting this files
http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1bd/msicuu2.exe


So if anyone gets something like this , but we still don't know what is winsxs for ?

 

[digibucc]

Windows stores the old dll's and library components in the WinSxS folder. Now if a newer version of this file is a part of the OS, but a particular application requires a particular older version for running, then the older version from the winsxs folder will be used, leaving the newer version in its present place, for other applications which may require it.

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.

from here

 

[RoutedScripter]

Oh , than that's great for compatability