Reducing size of Winsxs folder

Hi All,

My Windows 8.1 has around 6 GB of WInsxs folder and it is ever increasing. Please recommend a fix to this problem. How can I reduce it? I have searched a lot but the solutions are not working!!

Hi

There is a new option in the Disk Cleanup component that can help control the size of the Winsxs folder.

The Winsxs folder is the Component Store for the system and is used to install the Windows Updates.

1. Open Control Panel / Administrative Tools. Right click Disk Cleanup and select the Run as Administrator option.
2. Select the drive to clean (C:) and click OK. The drive will be scanned.
3. After the scan is complete, select the files you want to remove. The new option for cleaning the Winsxs folder is named Windows Update Cleanup. 

Click the OK button.

All of the outdated files in the Winsxs folder will be removed. Disk Cleanup will show how much disk space will be gained.

Let us know if you have more questions.

Regards

Thanks Ronnie, but it didn't help! :-( Any other ideas? What about deleting the files directly from the folder?

Hi Salman

Unfortunately manually deleting files from the Winsxs Component Store can quickly corrupt the operating system.

Most of the files that appear in the Windows, System32, SysWow32, and other system folders are Hard Links to the files in the Winsxs folder. Arbitrarily deleting files in Winsxs is defnitely not recommended.

From my own experience, the normal size for the Winsxs folder is between 5 and 10GB.

If you want to reduce the size of the C: System Drive, the best option is to relocate some of your User Folders to a separate hard drive, such as Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.

See Option Two in the following tutorial.

How to Change the Default Location of User Folders in Windows 7 and Windows 8:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

Regards

Hi,

Is there anything that will do this in Windows 7?

Hi mike

Yup, see this article.

Microsoft recently released a Disk Cleanup Wizard option that allows users to delete outdated Windows updates on computers running Windows 7 SP1.

 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2852386

Regards

Thanks Ronnie, but it didn't help! :-( Any other ideas? What about deleting the files directly from the folder?

Hi,

Is there anything that will do this in Windows 7?