I've been trying out the Component cache (WinSxs) removal, but it is not working properly.
After install, I still have a WinSxs folder which is half a gigabyte, containing roughly 18k files
Now while this is much smaller than the size of the folder without using the removal, it makes me wonder why there is that much left?

That's not much, that's quite small actually

how much winsxs removal save in windows server in 64bit ?

Quite a bit, actually. Before it was over 3gb, after only 0.5gb - but I wonder why this rest doesn't get removed as well.

i think net3 removal is make it 200mb im not sure

That portion is automatically saved depending on what vlite detects as hotfixes or parts of sp1 probably.
Also there are some runtimes that must not be deleted from sxs.

is it ok to remove winsxs with vlite? will it remove only the trash or system files will gone too? I tried to manually delete all files but then my vista didn't boot anymore.

The winsxs folder is similar to the i386 folder in XP. It contains drivers and other files necessary to make Windows run properly.

It is possible to delete files and folders from it, but it is one of those "If you don't know what you are doing, leave it alone!" folders.

Thats what i want to know, which files are removed from winsxs? Is vlite smart to remove only unnecessary archives?

i386 is a folder in Windows XP that can safely be deleted... it's just a copy of the Setup files.

I'm in the same boat here... I did a super-lightweight Vista install - specifically for Folding@Home GPU processing (users claim that running Vista solves the 100% CPU problem and massively improves performance). It seems that even vLite's best efforts can't wrangle in the runaway, obscene bloat of Vista. I told vLite to ditch the "winsxs" folder, and yet, it was the source of a "Configuring updates: Stage 3 of 3" reboot loop on the first startup (300kb pending.xml in the WinSxS folder that I was surprised to even find).

My WinSxS folder is about the size of a full blown Windows XP installation - 11,000 files and 418mb. What the heck gives? With all the junctions running amok in Vista, are those files really there; are they the originals and there are other files on the hard drive that are merely "mirrors" of them, or is it really just a waste of space?

Correct, or so I read:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=590216

I am using vlite final release v1.2.
Where are you finding the "Component cache" removal tool?
I would VERY much like to reduce my winxsx folder to the size you describe

You have to run vLite with the "-extreme" switch.

@anonymous_user

how do we do that?

cmd > vlite.exe -extreme ?

Yeah or you can create a shortcut for vLite and add the switch:

What exactly does the -extreme option does?

when running vLite with the extreme parameter, some hidden features are visible so that you can remove them, but keep in mind, that removing one of the shown components can cause a lot of trouble

It looks to me as though the only to remove the component cache is to uncheck" "Windows Update" in the first section. I woud sure like to reduce the size of the component cache, butnot at the cost of losing windows update. Am I missing something here?