See title.

MR - It doesn't really take up that much space.. My Windows 7 folder takes up about 8.4 GB. The Windows folder on my Vista drive, on the other hand, sucks up a whopping 14 GB even.It would seem to me that Vista's almost twice as big as Win 7...

My vista ultimate sp2 wimexpands to 8.7 gb. It seems to be the win sxs folder replaced the dllcache and takes up space.

Hi, I share the following information written by MVP Ronnie Vernon. Hope it helps. ================================================= 1. The WinSxS\Backup folder: In previous versions of Windows, such as XP there was a component called 'Windows File Protection' which was used to make sure that all of the many system files were protected and backed up. These files were backed up in the %systemroot%\System32\dllcache folder. If you had a problem and lost a system file or one of these files had been corrupted, you could run the 'sfc /scannow' command and the files would be replaced with the backed up copy in the dllcache folder. The dllcache folder was typically 500MB or larger. In Vista, 'Windows File Protection' has been replaced with 'Windows Resource Protection' which, essentially performs the same function. The 'dllcache' folder no longer exists in Vista, it has been replaced with the %systemroot%\Winsxs\Backup folder. This folder is NOT 'a backup of a backup', it exists only to make sure that files required for Vista to boot and operate are protected. 2. Manifests and Assemblies: Vista comes with a default selection of 'Shared' Manifests and Assemblies. This huge selection does not slow the system down or effect performance in any way, since the only time these components are actually loaded is when an installed program calls one of these components to be loaded. Developers may include a manifest in their program that calls one or more of these assemblies or they may install their own, private assembly in the WinSxS folder or in their own applications folders. When a program is started, if this program specifies an assembly dependency, side-by-side first searches for the assembly among the shared assemblies in the WinSxS folder. If the required assembly is not found, side-by-side then searches for a private assembly installed in a folder of the application's directory structure. Comments: 1. Duplicate files. Searching for and deleting duplicate files has always been something that Windows users have performed in an effort to reduce used hard drive space. However, this was done because hard drive space was very expensive and hard drives were very small. If this was 8 or10 years ago, this would still be a viable option, but it no longer applies since hard drives have become so large and very inexpensive. When Windows XP was first released, a typical hard drive cost around 2.99 USD per GB. Today, you can find a 500GB SATA 7200RPM hard drive for much less than 100 USD. The typical cost of hard drives is less than .15 Cents per Gigabyte. This means that a WinSxS folder that is 6GB costs around .90 Cents, and uses slightly more than 1 Percent of the drive. That's about the same cost as a large bag of potato chips. 2. Deleting components from the WinSxS folder. As I explained, the shared and private assemblies, manifests, backed up system files, etc, are critical to the operation of Vista 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, period. 3. Every system is different, when deleting components from the WinSxS folder, what works for one system, will not work for another system. Different systems, even if they have the same version of Vista installed, will typically have many different programs installed. A removed Side by Side component may not effect one system, but will effect another. 4. Changing permissions on or compressing the WinSxS folder can cause problems when installing an OS hotfix and installation/un-installation of any Win32 assemblies. References: Isolated Applications and Side-by-side Assemblies (Windows): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa375193(VS.85).aspx Assembly Searching Sequence (Windows): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374224.aspx Side-by-side Assemblies Reference (Windows): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa376414(VS.85).aspx About Isolated Applications and Side-by-side Assemblies (Windows): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374029(VS.85).aspx Protected Resource List (Windows): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa382530(VS.85).aspx Cost of Hard Drive Space History: http://www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/winchest.html

MR - Actually the SxS folder isn't really that big - the files in there are Hard Links. The SxS folder is a cache of backed up components. Er.. Rather links to the files that make up those components..

Thank you that was very informative, but was it the regular or barbecue flaver potato chips?"This means that a WinSxS folder that is 6GB costs around .90 Cents, and uses slightly more than 1 Percent of the drive. That's about the same cost as a large bag of potato chips. "

MR - Got a 7-11 near you? They've got their own line these days - and you've got a choice of about 7 flavors. 79 cents a bag... Good stuff.. At any rate, we digress.. Ronnie's point is still valid - drive space is dirt cheap. Personally, I kinda think having that space being used is a better deal than NOT having it and being forced to reinstall everything because something took some files out. I can only hope it works better than it did under XP. Had a client who got infested with some virus or other abouta year ago that infected 5 key component files. Had to do some major surgery to bring the system back to life. Very ugly...

As far as i can tell, it still has the scannow but it might not be as secure as with XP becouse the the only way to disable system file protection was to patch sfc_os.dll file and modify the registry but with the new systema file can easily be deleted just by taking ownership in unsafe mode.

MR Ronnie's point is still valid - drive space is dirt cheap. Personally, I kinda think having that space being used is a better deal than NOT having it and being forced to reinstall everything because something took some files out. I can only hope it works better than it did under XP. Had a client who got infested with some virus or other abouta year ago that infected 5 key component files. Had to do some major surgery to bring the system back to life. Very ugly... Yeah. Hdd are getting cheap & for desktop no problem. Laptop do have problems. Most laptop manufacturers don't seem to know about this Winsxs issue in Vista. They follow the same partition rules as in WinXP - min space for C drive & bigger space for D & whatever. 20Gb in C drive is definitely enough for XP but for Vista after loading all the basic programs including Office 2007 occupy about 15Gb - Windows including Winsxs & System files used up 12Gb. In no time at all there's no space left to work on & for a lot of people there's nothing they can do about it. To increase the partition is no easy task as the Recovery disk is located in the other partition. Let's hope before Win7 comes out, the laptop people will take note of this & increase the C drive to at least 40Gb or more.Gigabyte EP35 DS4 P4C2 6750/4Gb OCZ DDR2 1066/ NV 8800GT 256mb/ 2x1TB SATA running on WinXP/ 1x750Gb SATA running on Win7RC/ 1x500Gb SATA running on Vista Ult/ DVDRW x4 sets/ Pinnacle AVDV capture card/ OCZ ModXstream 700W PSU

MR Ronnie's point is still valid - drive space is dirt cheap. Personally, I kinda think having that space being used is a better deal than NOT having it and being forced to reinstall everything because something took some files out. I can only hope it works better than it did under XP. Had a client who got infested with some virus or other abouta year ago that infected 5 key component files. Had to do some major surgery to bring the system back to life. Very ugly... Yeah. Hdd are getting cheap & for desktop no problem. Laptop do have problems. Most laptop manufacturers don't seem to know about this Winsxs issue in Vista. They follow the same partition rules as in WinXP - min space for C drive & bigger space for D & whatever. 20Gb in C drive is definitely enough for XP but for Vista after loading all the basic programs including Office 2007 occupy about 15Gb - Windows including Winsxs & System files used up 12Gb. In no time at all there's no space left to work on & for a lot of people there's nothing they can do about it. To increase the partition is no easy task as the Recovery disk is located in the other partition.Let's hope before Win7 comes out, the laptop people will take note of this & increase the C drive to at least 40Gb or more. Gigabyte EP35 DS4 P4C2 6750/4Gb OCZ DDR2 1066/ NV 8800GT 256mb/ 2x1TB SATA running on WinXP/ 1x750Gb SATA running on Win7RC/ 1x500Gb SATA running on Vista Ult/ DVDRW x4 sets/ Pinnacle AVDV capture card/ OCZ ModXstream 700W PSU tonistein - Ah.. You must be referring to a Sony... Their drive partitioning drives me NUTS... 1.) They install a 40 GB HDD for the laptop, 2.) They create 2 partitions - C: and D: where C: is like 15 GB and the rest is drive D:3.) They don't do anything to redirect user files to be saved on drive D: - it's all on drive C:Next thing you know, you're running out of disk space even though you've got 25 GB of virgin, unusued space because mostusers just use the defaults - whereever the program saves it's stuff by default - most often some variation of the My Documents tree.

If it is taking up alot of space, you can set the limit of windows shadow storage space.

Frankly, has Microsoft ever thinks about those ordinary folks who knows nothing much about this Winsxs thingy especially when they had used WinXP before. I am a DIY guy who do setup of computers for my customers & also am a pro photographer & videographer & I consider myself as quite an expert in computers but I came across this Winsxs only 3 weeks ago & I have been using Vista Ult for 6 over months.Gigabyte EP35 DS4 P4C2 6750/4Gb OCZ DDR2 1066/ NV 8800GT 256mb/ 2x1TB SATA running on WinXP/ 1x750Gb SATA running on Win7RC/ 1x500Gb SATA running on Vista Ult/ DVDRW x4 sets/ Pinnacle AVDV capture card/ OCZ ModXstream 700W PSU

The Winsxs folder replaced the dll cache. I examined mine and found that it has three or four backups of files when there need only be one which would cut it's size in two. Even though disk space is inexpensive I believe it should be usedto maximumefficiency.The less information stored on a disk the faster it can be accessed.

Try storing your data in arabic numerals rather than roman numerals. That should help.

Too bad you have no sense of humor. Be careful or the thread will be locked by the lock-wielding moderator.