Hello

Please Notice that WinSxS have system files and must NOT Fully removed
and low possibly that hotfix wont work [ gonna check it for sure soon ]
Anyway its could be recover easily with gimagex and ur iso or burned iso

before u do that guide on ur OS u should know i cant ensure that ur system will work properly
[well as i know its run Fine on vmware, tested Windows Server 2008 32bit and Vista Ultimate 32bit ]


i found fast way to remove the dupe files in WInSxS folder
files that dupe are mostly files that has been already installed on the system Like Windows media Player, windows defender Aero Tablet PC and so on....and that's why u dont need them

Logic explaination : Ms use winsxs to backup their components to future install
winsxs have system files and components files
components files that already installed used to be dupe
if its internal system files its wont be dupe the system will run them from winsxs dir
[i hope my logic is right]


as u see i use whereisit app to run dupe search

my personal iso is about 1.1gb the hdd space take around 3.3GB
so if ur iso is diff or u didnt use vlited its should be more then 1GB to delete


ok now lets go

1. im not sure how much its needed but u should login as Administrator

2. go to console [ with admin rights ofc ]
and run those cmds



3. WhereIsIt will take it all from here
just make ur disk image [ u can limit it to windows dir if ur drive is big and UnActive the Plugins will save time ]

make the dupe search [Ctrl+D] run it and make it sort as folder

delete all the files in c:\windows\WinSxS\.... [to make it fast make sure that u unmarked all the deletion options]
[edited 1.6.2008 exclude backup dir and Manifests]

Tip: edited 7.6.2008
use waik to pre-install ur feathers [with permanence="permanent"]
to get ride of those dirs and save more space [the system will delete them after the installatio]

and just for hold alt+n for few secs to skip the files that wont delete [ maybe they are in used ? ]

Hope u guys find it useful

Thx...but:

where is the warning that if they delete (insert who knows which) folder in Winsxs they won't be able to boot.
And that hotfixes might fail to install after tampering with Winsxs doubles. Oh even and Control Panel - Features. Try it

ok i will try

is more like sfc bypasser option

If you tell people remove only double they will go: "and why would I keep this other gigabyte or so, lets try deleting all". Just a warning would be appropriate.
Same as cpanel failed some hotfixes will as well, I've been testing this long time ago. Thing is if you want to tamper with Winsxs say goodbye to hotfixes and component install.
I can't tell you how much I want that folder cleaned as well, working on it for later.
Also if you reinstall often then who cares that hotfixes don't work, just integrate and reinstall when there are enough of them to justify that action.
Or in case of SP1 reinstall on new version, hotfixes are not needed for now. I will be removing the whole (at least 95%) of winsxs in my next install. Why stop on double if it is already broken

OK i add that warning
Please Notice that WinSxS have system files and must NOT Fully removed
and low possibly that hotfix wont work [ gonna check it for sure soon ]

the about the feathers and hotfix really doubt that its will crash

its might be only if this hotfix is connect to same component that need a fix

mostly they are used to internal system fixing

and again those files are dupe so they already been installed on the system [Components]
not important files

Perhaps you could include that option nuhi as an Alpha (Experimental) option with newer builds of vLite for folks that really want to slim things down and don't really care about the Hotfix/Component install issues or would they rather have to go back the v. old build of vLite that still included that option (after removing stuff with a newer vLite) to be able to use that option?

that is good idea

and even its not going well it could be fix easily

just copy back the files from the target [ofc with vlite or bat file ?]

Arneh, it will sound too convenient but it's already planned that way, hidden with the -extreme switch, available in the next version.

By the way, there is a newer build out today (only for Server 2008 64-Bit because it includes the new Hyper-V bits) but nevertheless it seems to be much newer than RC1.

6001.17119: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

Arneh, good, it's moving.

If at least they give slipstreamed Vista SP1 ISO this way...but anyway I'm ok with it now, capturing in virtual machine is painless.

I guess MS and video will bring down the pipes

nuhi could u add in the new vlite option to enable administrator account
is might pass the user creation while installation

and btw i didnt understand nothing

So,has anyone figured out if this is a safe way to clean the WinSxS folder yet? Or is there another way? I'm running Vista Home Basic SP1,and would sure like to reduce the size of that folder.It's 4.6 gigs right now,compared to XP SP3 at 19.5 megs.I see a couple of posters saying they were working on it,but the last post was Dec 13,07 and it's now March 25,08.Also can this be done on installed system,or only vlite?I hope somebody has figured out a way,because going from less than 20 megs on XP to almost 5 gigs on Vista is bloody ridiculous! Any hope? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.Thanks.

better use vlite but still its have alot of things u need of know

update wont work and hotfix wont install
add/remove feathers will die too

if u remove comps with vlite the winsxs files will remove too and still save all the functionally i said before

use 7zip or gimagex so u could see the winsxs size before & after and see if u like it

GL

Just suddenly wonder. If those files in the WinSxS is actually being loaded at all.
Perhaps we could use dummy files to fake it?

After following this guide I wasn't able to access VMware Tools anymore. Clicking twice on the tray icon didn't bring it up. No error messages were shown either.

Running: VMware Workstation 6.0.3
Guest OS: Windows Vista Ultimate (32bit)

use the exteame option in vlite and do it with it much safer

Great. Just found this on vLite Changelog:

"v1.1 RC
(...)
new: Extreme switch to show hidden components (winsxs removal)"

Sounds promising. I'll give the current version (v1.1.6 RC) a try.
Thanks, man.

u know what will happend when u do that right ?

i updated the guide

i test it and its wasnt good the system wont load up

cos the backup and Manifests dirs

but now its update-able but need to save the backup files of Iexplorer too to make it perfect

i checked how much space its save

32bit 800mb [ my windows dir is 1.6giga]
64bit 1600mb [ didnt test it cos dont have VT so i guess the install size would be 3giga from 4.4giga ofc my settings]

im not sure if its recommand to do on wim file cos there a files that wont delete [system use them]

the best is do updating and then remove them [so u wont need to guess what the backup files of Iexplorer ]

check picture to more info

I tried the scripts to give admin rights but the deletion step still did not work (very good instructions on this thread - the scripts run perfectly) - the OS still denies access to the directories. And 'whereisit' is a very useful product, I'll use it more than windows search (which whether you have indexing switched on or off is a woefull component of this lame operating system). Various people on this thread have warned that certain updates and hotfixes may not work, this doesn't seem to be a serious threat to me as windows update seem to only work 50% of the time anyway. As one person has already commented, it's already broken so we aren't going to make it any worse. It took me 3 attempts to get SP1 to load for example. As before on this thread, the spirit of having all versions of DLL's and other unique files for applications has some merit, but why do I need 5 copies of the games? And why protect all 5 copies of the games and prevent deletion? Besides, I have original disks for everything so worst case I can reload it all anyway....

As this is the performance and maintenance forum, is there anyone out there writing a clean up utility for this directory? I'd help fund it as a piece of shareware!

I'm seriously considering regressing back to XP.....

here a forum that u could say it

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/showpo...4&siteid=17

and about the updates use WUD to get those updates
integrate them with vlite or waik [ duno if vlite integrate then with "Permanent" performance ]
to save space

the OS still denies access

as i remember 32bit os wont let u delete around 20mb or more but really not that much!


and vlite could delete winsxs efficiently in extreme mode

What about a winsxs folder that has gone to 200 GB on a 250GB disk?

if u really have winsxs 200giga big
post it here and in ms forum

cost its really weird / bad

Ok. I have solved the problem. I have completely given up on Vista and upgraded (and yes, the word is upgraded) to XP. My Dell XPS is now a fabulous, fast and easy to use machine. Can't understand why Dell recommends Vista, their kit is sooo much better without the additional burden. All my software now works again, I've got back 40Gb of disk space (30% of my hard drice capacity). I recommend this solution, if I had done this when I first had the problem I would have saved a week of my life trying to fix the Vista problems. After my initial post in August last year, I put my 'problem' machine aside while I tried to fix it and used an old machine, it finally had a hard disk crash last week, forcing me to do something about the Vista machine.

Don't hesitate, just get out your copy of XP and do it!

The process mentioned above might cause serious system issues. You might want to try the following procedure instead:

http://windowsfixup.com/2009/05/winsxs-fol...disk-space-fix/

Agreed, this tool was able to delete 600 MB in my winsxs reducing a vlited 7 RC installation to a fantastic 3.2 GB !

64bit ?
i did 3.2gb too with 32bit but not with the tool

btw the guide is meant to be post-install

64bit ultimate.
Vlited with this conf.
Removed hiberfil and pagefile.
Then used winsxslite.
I think I used your guide but made the system instable.
No problem with this tool AFAIK.

I think this is the slimmest installed size I know.
BTW if someone knows how to remove other components (IE, firewall, update) please let me know.

sorry duno if its possible maybe sidebar but firewall ...

anyways this footprint really nice how much it in iso file ?

another thing i dont understand the hard linking with winsxslite

does it already hard linked ?

ISO is about 1.8 GB.
I don't understand completely the hard linking.
For what I know the links show as the real files increasing a lot the size on disk.
Reducing is made AFTER installation, but there's a way to make it before using imagex (I'm trying right now).

Quack. What are "feathers"?

hey level
sorry meant features in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features

Is there any chances it can support windows 7 too?

how u mean ?

this guide can do on any os u like

just remember remove all the dupes are not safe so make backup for few days
so if will have problem u could restore it

or make checkpoint of dupes removal so u will see when the os getting unstable for ur demands

As far as I know, all the component files in WinSxS are hard links to the files in other directories, i.e. different file entry in the file system but pointing to the same data blocks. If you just remove one entry (the ones under the WinSxS directory), the actual data are not erased, and you should not get any extra free space. How do you manage to get the cut off? Thanks!

You can view the hard links in your file system by installing Link Shell Extension.

Here's Wikipedia page about hard link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link

vista didnt work well with hard link
the file process on it was very slow

windows 7 got improved and know to handle it better

NTFS system duno to handle it good enuf and show the right space that used

anyways this guide is good for who use lot of MS apps
and his winsxs dir is going high cos that

the iso wont change cos the dupe deletion
but its will improve installation time

its will improve AV scan time

i duno if its improve the performance of the Windows
maybe less files make the windows work faster less dll to load and search

but its improve the feeling when ur windows is dupeless and save 4 giga hard links of dupes
like movies sound drivers langs and more stuff that not needed to back-upped


and i really dont understand how hard link supposed to fix the hell DLL problem
or recover the system from damage failures
if the file damage the dupe will damage too cos its the same

and if u have DLL hell problem why its need to be 2 files that are the same [sometime there are dupes 4 times]
if there another file that is diff then other dll files then its should be
one dll for original one another for updated dll file

in reality they have 1 original in system32 one in winsxs for dupe
and one updated in winsxs and system32
if the os need the original go directly to winsxs original dir if to the update go directly to system32

the hard link system is not needed at all!

Point me out if I understand you incorrectly. Since the files under System32 and the files under WinSxS are hard links, and based on the definition of hard link, once the WinSxS files change, the System32 files change automatically, since they are pointing to the same data block. Therefore you will never get an updated file in System32 while still have the original one in WinSxS.

I'm not Microsoft people. In my opinion, WinSxS is what they use to do package and version controls, as well as some level of backup. As the softwares are becoming bigger and bigger, we need multiple library files to collaborate with each other, and we need to make sure they always have the compatible version. Without WinSxS, the system cannot have two "msvcp.dll" files with different versions in System32. Rather, they have to name them msvcp80.dll and msvcp90.dll respectively, which is not scalable solution.

I mean, WinSxS is not a bad solution, and it does not take extra space. I do not know how bad does Vista support hard links (since I never had problem with it), but removing dupe in WinSxS is not always good. Use it when you are sure you will not need those files.