Hello, My Winsxs firectory has grown to 7GB large and is sucking up the available space I have allocated to my C:\ drive. Is there anyway to delete the files out of this directory? TommyTommy Rotunno

hi tommy,many users have posted earlier about the increase in size of winsxs folder and below is the explanation From David Shen Based on the research, all the necessary files for specific additions, roles, applications will be contained in the %windir%\Winsxs directory. The %windir%\winsxs folder (also referred to as the component store) is used to store all the installation source files that is needed for Windows Server 2008 to service itself and its optional components, which takes the place of the traditional flat from media. All the shared and private assemblies, manifests, backed up system files, etc, are critical to the operation system of Windows Server 2008 and all of the installed programs. If any of these shared assemblies are removed and you install a program that requires that assembly, the program will simply refuse to run. Here is a blog which describe it in detailed. What is the WINSXS directory in Windows 2008 and Windows Vista and why is it so large?http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/09/17/what-is-the-winsxs-directory-in-windows-2008-and-windows-vista-and-why-is-it-so-large.aspx If you want to decrease the space that the Winsxs folder takes, you may consider the way which is described in the following Blog. What's winsxs\manifestcache\(something)_blobs.bin?http://blogs.msdn.com/jonwis/archive/2009/01/13/what-s-winsxs-manifestcache-lt-something-gt-blobs-bin.aspx=======================================================Additional infohi there, many users have reported the issue of winsxs folder getting increased in size, this folder is basically a OS folder which you should not modifiy / play around with. OS stores dll refernce files in windows sxs ( side by side ) folder which is very much needed for OS to refer to particular version of dll below is the excellent post explaining the same ( they have explained for windows vista ) but windows sxs folder does same job on all flavour OS . http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/itprovistaannouncements/thread/9411dbaa-69ac-43a1-8915-749670cec8c3/sainath Windows Driver Development

Thanks for the info. It looks like there is no way to shrink that directory which is crazy. Microsoft really dropped the ball here, I have 7GB being taken up by that folder. Tommy Rotunno

Hi Tommy, Vista Service Pack 1 contains a binary called VSP1CLN.EXE, a tool that will make the Service Pack package permanent (not removable) on your system, and remove the RTM versions of all superseded components. http://sreekarun.livejournal.com/8015.htmlSreeSomeOne

But I am running Windows Server 2008 64bit not Vista.Tommy Rotunno

hi tommy, did you had a chance to go through my eariler post in which there is detailed info about winsxs and link to reduce the size of winsxs foldersainath Windows Driver Development

Hello Tommy,The thing to remember is this is really your OS. Most of the files in the various Windows folders are really just hard links to the same files you are seeing when looking at winsxs. The files really don't take up space in the winsxs and one of the other folders, it only lives once on the drive. But if you look at the folders individually the numbers appear larger than the total disk space consumedThanks, Darrell Gorter[MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Hi,Sainath and Darrell have provided correct information for you. Generally speaking, we dont need to worry about the size of WinSxS folder. But if you would like to reduce its size, you can try the following tools:The WinSxS folder in Vista and Windows Server 208 has the same function, so you can use the VSP1CLN file to remove some files in WinSxS folder.http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709655.aspx However, correct knowledge of WinSxS folder is important before you take any action. From the "WinSxS directory" section of the following article: http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/11/19/disk-space.aspx We can find:"Nearly every file in the WinSxS directory is a hard link to the physical files elsewhere on the systemmeaning that the files are not actually in this directory. For instance in the WinSxS there might be a file called advapi32.dll that takes up >700K however whats being reported is a hard link to the actual file that lives in the Windows\System32, and it will be counted twice (or more) when simply looking at the individual directories from Windows Explorer.""In reality it doesnt actually consume as much disk space as it appears when using the built-in tools (DIR and Explorer) to measure disk space used"Please also refer to the "Where does the disk space go?" section to get more information.Thanks. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Darrel, Explorer shows that my winsxs directory takes up 7GB of space. If most of that was not real due to hardlinks, then I would expect that the total used space for C: reported by Explorer would be larger than that reported by chkdsk, because it is counting gigabytes of phantom used space in winsxs. However, the numbers match with chkdsk, which leads me to believe that the 7GB number is correct, unless chkdsk itself is being fooled by hardlinks, in which case is there any way to know how much free space is left on my drive? Also, when I subtract the total used space reported by explorer from the size of my partition, it matches the free space reported by Windows on the partition. So, is the 7GB real or not? Thanks.