huge winsxs folder, can be reduced?

Hello:
I have a huge (6 GB) winsxs folder containing 9939 sub-folders.
can that be reduced?

using W7-x64

thanks in advance

Maurice SAAB wrote:

I have a huge (6 GB) winsxs folder containing 9939 sub-folders.
can that be reduced?

Tread with care, that folder tree is not what it seems.
The safe way is to use the clean-up wizard ...

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2013/10/07/breaking-news-reduce-the-size-of-the-winsxs-directory-and-free-up-disk-space-with-a-new-update-for-windows-7-sp1-clients.aspx

| I have a huge (6 GB) winsxs folder containing 9939 sub-folders.
| can that be reduced?
|

Microsoft basically unloads the whole DVD into
that folder, with every driver they've got, so
that Plug n' Play and easy upgrades will work well.
Any support files you later install also get copied
to winsxs. (XP does something similar, but on a
far smaller scale.)

You simply don't get a choice in the matter.
The result is a vast array of junk you'll never
use, from Win32 system files to drivers for
hardware you'll never own. In theory it should
be possible to dump most of it, but there are
two problem: 1) It's a vast undertaking and 2)
Win7 is a brittle, complex, overproduced system
that breaks easily once you take it out of
lockdown.

When I first started playing with Win7 I tried
deleting a lot of winsxs files and it seemed to
work fine. I tried moving the folder to another
drive and that seemed OK. I tried deleting the
folder and Win7 went south in a big way.

I ended up writing some tools to make Win7
a bit more usable. Among them is a tool to easily
remove file restrictions from any file/folder on
the system, including winsxs if you like. You'll
need something like that if you're going to attempt
pruning the mess. I also have more info about
winsxs, if you're interested:

http:///www.jsware.net/jsware/nt6fix.php5

There are other methods to remove file restrictions,
like the tweak to add Microsoft command line tools
to the context menu. (Takeown and icacls) But
however you go about it, if you want freedom to
do as you like with Win7 files you'll need to first deal
with the file restrictions. (Euphemistically known
as "permissions". Microsoft has a talent for Orwellian
language invention, like "digital rights management",
which is really "media file crippleware protocol".

Andy Burns wrote on 11/7/2015 7:40 AM:
Maurice SAAB wrote:

I have a huge (6 GB) winsxs folder containing 9939 sub-folders.
can that be reduced?

Tread with care, that folder tree is not what it seems.
The safe way is to use the clean-up wizard ...

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2013/10/07/breaking-news-reduce-the-size-of-the-winsxs-directory-and-free-up-disk-space-with-a-new-update-for-windows-7-sp1-clients.aspx

This update is installed on my computer and is not very helpful. My
folder is about 11GB. I'm only offered update removals if I delete an
update, e.g., one of those found to promote Win 10.

According to the MS article about the update, you will be offered a
chance to remove superseded updates but that's all. What I think we all
want is a way to say remove all winsxs crap associated with updates
older than "time spec". Perhaps an "accept" feature would be valuable to
some.
--
Jeff Barnett