Windows Folder Is Huge

[sbk]

Why is the Windows folder on my hard drive 17.8 GB? Its a vista home machine (yes I know--it was preinstalled) and the hard drive is nearly full. Music is 4 gb, photos maybe 1/2 gb. Program files only 2.92 gb. users 5 gb The disc is partitioned 35 gb each partition and the c: partition only has 1.59 free.

I want to do a win 7 upgrade but need more space on my hard drive to do that.

[bazmlb]

Move the music to a usb stick while you do the upgrade then put it back after.

have a look at the drive with a program called treesize this will pin point the sub folder where the space is being utilised

[astral]

Download, install and run cCleaner to get rid of all the unwanted junk.

CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I would back the whole C drive up on to the D drive if you haven't any external storage an run a Clean install of Windows 7. Then transfer your important files back on to your new Windows 7 installation. Once complete, you can delete the back up.

A new installation of Windows 7 can take less than 30 minutes. A upgrade can take hours. Banish Vista to the bin.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

If you are going to use CCleaner, use this version.

[siamect]

If you are going to use CCleaner, use this version.

Hmm...

I cannot see any info about the license of this one...!

Martin

[sbk]

I have run the updated ccleaner, uninstalled unused programs and defragged, done all that. I dont' have the win 7 install yet, so that will all have to wait, good to know about the clean install info tho.. cheers

[bazmlb]

I have run c cleaner, updated and defragged, done all that. I dont' have the win 7 install yet, so that will all have to wait, good to know about the clean install info tho.. cheers

You can always choose to install windows 7 to another drive other than C:

[sbk]

d only has 8 gb left on it... but that drive holds all the music, pics, movies etc.

[Tywais]

Hmm...

I cannot see any info about the license of this one...!

Martin

CCleaner is donateware and that is the company that makes it. They have a thumb drive (portable) version also.

CCleaner - Download

[siamect]

d only has 8 gb left on it... but that drive holds all the music, pics, movies etc.

You can't have it like that...

Hard drives are cheap and you need one extra for backup anyway... get a new one or two...and install whatever you want to run on the new one.

Martin

[siamect]

Hmm...

I cannot see any info about the license of this one...!

Martin

CCleaner is donateware and that is the company that makes it. They have a thumb drive (portable) version also.

CCleaner - Download

I know... I was asking about the license, not the price.... Thanks anyway...

Martin

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I have run the updated ccleaner, uninstalled unused programs and defragged, done all that. I dont' have the win 7 install yet, so that will all have to wait, good to know about the clean install info tho.. cheers

You can also clear space by deleting Shadow Copies/System Restore. How to Free up Hard Disk Space on Windows Vista - wikiHow

[Donnyboy]

windows on my vista home edition is 19 GB

what size is the basic windows 7 ?

[Tywais]

windows on my vista home edition is 19 GB

what size is the basic windows 7 ?

Windows 7 requires 16GB to do the installation due to the temporary files but when done will only be around 7-8GB.

BTW - I've done a couple of dozen installation and the 7-8 GB is nearly the same on all of them.

[Supernova]

windows on my vista home edition is 19 GB

what size is the basic windows 7 ?

If I remember correctly, Windows 7 "Ultimate" uses approximately 8GB of disk space (excluding the pagefile -- which is usually 1.5 times the amount of system RAM). For a mid-range system with 2GB memory, the total amount of disk space usage should be around 12 gigs after a fresh install.

[Tywais]

I know... I was asking about the license, not the price.... Thanks anyway...

Martin

That wasn't what I was doing but to be more specific License: Freeware

Not sure of the point of your question but here are the details:

Licence Agreement for CCleaner

By using or distributing this software (or any work based on the software) you shall be deemed to have accepted the terms and conditions set out below.

Piriform Limited ("Piriform") is making this software freely available on the basis that it is accepted as found and that the user checks its fitness for purpose prior to use.

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranties whatsoever. In no event will the authors, partners or contributors be held liable for any damages, claims or other liabilities direct or indirect, arising from the use of this software.

Piriform will from time to time make software updates available. However, Piriform accepts no obligation to provide any support to free licence holders.

Piriform grants you a limited non-exclusive licence to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software.

2. You must not alter the software, user licence or installer in any way.

3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any distribution.

4. You may not resell or charge for the software.

5. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, derive the source code of or modify [or create derivative work from] the program.

6. You must not use CCleaner to engage in or allow others to engage in any illegal activity.

7. You may not claim any sponsorship by, endorsement by, or affiliation with our company.

8. You acknowledge that Piriform owns the copyright and all associated intellectual property rights relating to the software.

This software licence is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

[siamect]

I know... I was asking about the license, not the price.... Thanks anyway...

Martin

That wasn't what I was doing but to be more specific License: Freeware

Not sure of the point of your question but here are the details:

Licence Agreement for CCleaner

By using or distributing this software (or any work based on the software) you shall be deemed to have accepted the terms and conditions set out below.

Piriform Limited ("Piriform") is making this software freely available on the basis that it is accepted as found and that the user checks its fitness for purpose prior to use.

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranties whatsoever. In no event will the authors, partners or contributors be held liable for any damages, claims or other liabilities direct or indirect, arising from the use of this software.

Piriform will from time to time make software updates available. However, Piriform accepts no obligation to provide any support to free licence holders.

Piriform grants you a limited non-exclusive licence to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software.

2. You must not alter the software, user licence or installer in any way.

3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any distribution.

4. You may not resell or charge for the software.

5. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, derive the source code of or modify [or create derivative work from] the program.

6. You must not use CCleaner to engage in or allow others to engage in any illegal activity.

7. You may not claim any sponsorship by, endorsement by, or affiliation with our company.

8. You acknowledge that Piriform owns the copyright and all associated intellectual property rights relating to the software.

This software licence is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Thanks, these details are exactly what I was looking for...

The word "freeware" is used for a huge number of different licenses of proprietary software. These licenses bunched together under the name "freeware" although they may be very different form each other and some of them may have very little in common with the rest, so it is not at all clear what they mean by writing the word "freeware".

I think it is important that the licenses are displayed clearly so that the users can read it before they download the software.

Very often you get the license text first time when you install the software and some people just click accept, without even reading.

Martin

[sbk]

So, is a 17gb windows folder an average size for vista then? it just seems overly huge.

[siamect]

So, is a 17gb windows folder an average size for vista then? it just seems overly huge.

My wife's Win7 windows folder is 10Gb... absurd...

[Supernova]

So, is a 17gb windows folder an average size for vista then? it just seems overly huge.

The Windows folder shouldn't be larger than 10GB (barring updates). If I had to make a guess, a good chunk of space is probably used up by the WinSxS folder. Known as "Windows Side-by-Side", this is the Windows native assembly cache used to store system files. Installing third-party applications can cause this folder to grow over time as multiple versions of a given file are stored locally for compatibility reasons.

[sbk]

Cheers for an answer supernova, thats why I asked twice. It seemed overly large to me but I hadn't actually gotten an answer as to why that would be so or if it were normal until now.

What can I do about this problem then? Anything?

[elkangorito]

I run XP & have a 200GB hard-drive. All partitions are NTFS.

I have partitioned my hard-drive into 3 partitions:

C drive - 6GB (for the Operating System only). This size is adequate for all possible updates & program info.

D drive - 2GB (for the swapfile only).

E drive - The remainder of the drive space. I keep my 'hard earned' data & programs on this drive.

In this arrangement & if I should be unfortunate enough to get a virus or malware infection, the problem is usually contained within drive C. In this case, I have the option of formatting drive C & reinstalling the OS without affecting my data. Of course, all programs will need to be reloaded.

Keeping the swapfile seperate from drive C increases performance due to less fragmentation of drive C.

[Tywais]

My Windows 7 Windows folder takes up 9.78GB and I am a power user with dozens of applications. There is a directory, Winsxs, which is the system backup folder and it takes up 3.94GB itself. However, removing items in the Winsxs folder is not an option as these are critical Win7/Vista files and require them for operation and installations.

System Restore can take up a very large amount of space depending on how often you have installed applications/drivers. Possibly the shop put stuff in there also. The Temp folder can get large but not enough to account for your space issues. CCleaner will clear that out anyway. From other forums, it appears Vista should only take up no more the 6GB+. The installation requires around 15GB as noted by Microsoft so perhaps for some reason when they installed it they kept the temporary install directories also.

[Tywais]

Checking System Restore space > How To Reduce Disk Space Used By Windows Vista System Restore

[Supernova]

Cheers for an answer supernova, thats why I asked twice. It seemed overly large to me but I hadn't actually gotten an answer as to why that would be so or if it were normal until now.

What can I do about this problem then? Anything?

I don't think there's a whole lot you can do (unfortunately). Below are links to posts about WinSxS bloat and how to deal with it...

Technet forums: winsxs folder way too big!

Reduce the size of the WinSxS folder with vsp1cln.exe and compcln.exe

[sbk]

Cheers supernova, you got it in one. winsxs is 15.6 GB.

[Khun Jean]

I run XP & have a 200GB hard-drive. All partitions are NTFS.

I have partitioned my hard-drive into 3 partitions:

C drive - 6GB (for the Operating System only). This size is adequate for all possible updates & program info.

D drive - 2GB (for the swapfile only).

E drive - The remainder of the drive space. I keep my 'hard earned' data & programs on this drive.

In this arrangement & if I should be unfortunate enough to get a virus or malware infection, the problem is usually contained within drive C. In this case, I have the option of formatting drive C & reinstalling the OS without affecting my data. Of course, all programs will need to be reloaded.

Keeping the swapfile seperate from drive C increases performance due to less fragmentation of drive C.

My experience:

Having separate partitions on a single disk does not really increase performance.

If you set a swap file minimum and maximum size by hand this file will never fragment.

Because of the separate partitions the hard disk reading heads have to on average travel much more distance then if System Programs and swap file are on the same partition.

Ideally a swap file should be on a separate drive or even better on a fast 'Pen' drive. The performance increase with this is substantial.

Having data on a partition or drive is great, until that one is full and you still have large amounts of free space on your system/programs partition.

Or you setup the system/programs partition too small and with upgrades and more programs run out of space.

For these reasons i have at least 2 drives. One fixed internally and one through a network or usb connection. those can be stuffed full with fun stuff and when full just buy another one.

Still have a computer with windows NT4 Server. Uses about 270Mb. and 128K internal memory. Still runs most things needed for office work

Windows 7 Ultimate edition uses about 15Gb after about 6 months use. On a 150Gb hard disk i not really care.

[t.s]

system restore can be nasty, i check my system restore file size every few months. today i freed over 30gb by deleting all but the most recent restore point.