I have a windows 2008 server std edition installed and the WINSXS directory is so large that it is eating up all my available hard drive space. Is there anyway I can delete anything from that directory without anything breaking? I tried to do a disk cleanup but it really didn't free up any space. Thank you, Tommy

An easy way to reclaim space, especially if your server has mutliple drives is to move the pagefile.sys file to another drive. The only downside is that you will not be able to capture a dump during a BSOD. Also, make sure that you disable hibernation (if its enabled) as this file will account for a few GBs of space (depends on how much RAM your server has). Visit: anITKB.com, an IT Knowledge Base.

Hello, the WINSXS folder can not be reduced in the size. With Windows server 2008 there where a lot of changes and this is one of it, the folder contains all update files that are installed on the amchinie for recovery purpose. In older OS versions then WIndows server 2008 you where able to remove/delete the $KBxxxxxxx folders and then you wheren't able anymore to uninstall updates. This option is removed. So you have to think about expanding the disk drive or move the server roles/applications etc. to another machine and reinstall that machine with a bigger system drive if moving the pagefile isn't enough as Jorge suggested already.Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Hello, We have seen some instances when the manifest cache file grows overly large. Check the size of that file and delete it if it's too big. it will be regenerated Directory of c:\windows\winsxs\ManifestCache The name would be something similar to e4e8be02b8fae2a7_blobs.bin =>Run the following commands from an elevated command prompt: Net stop trustedinstaller NOTE: Wait for it to stop and ensure it stops successfully. If you are unable to stop the service, you must restart your machine. Do not attempt the next step if you are unable to stop the trustedinstaller service. Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\* Icacls %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\* /GRANT administrators:F Del /q %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\*Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en

There's no need to perform all of the above steps to delete the ManifestCache files within C:\Windows\winsxs\ManifestCache. You simply need to take ownership and and give your user full control to the files before deleting them. They will then recreate themselves.