Windows folder excessively large

I've got a friend with Windows 10 on a recent Dell laptop. He's
currently on the road, so as of this writing, I can't get you the latest
and greatest info about the system. I do know the latest W10 update is
not installed due to insufficient space.

His Windows folder is just over 70GB in size! And his hard drive is
just 120GB, an SSD. The drive in my computer is just over 20GB.

Ran some of the typical clean up programs, found nothing. Virus scan,
SuperAntiSpyware, Adware Cleaner, and Malwarebytes. Not a single issue
found.

Hard Drive Sentinel found 0 problems with the drive.

IIRC, I even turned on hidden files and folders, found nothing.

I'm looking for ideas as to how to discover what is using up the space,
or at least telling W10 the space is in use.

I considered just resetting the system, but we have to find a product
key or two, as well as make sure he knows his Windows sign in information.




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 59.0.1 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.6.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Run something like sequiaview to give a graphic representation, large
folders/files are easy to distinguish.

MJP

"Ken Springer" wrote in message news
I've got a friend with Windows 10 on a recent Dell laptop. He's
currently on the road, so as of this writing, I can't get you the latest
and greatest info about the system. I do know the latest W10 update is
not installed due to insufficient space.

His Windows folder is just over 70GB in size! And his hard drive is
just 120GB, an SSD. The drive in my computer is just over 20GB.

Ran some of the typical clean up programs, found nothing. Virus scan,
SuperAntiSpyware, Adware Cleaner, and Malwarebytes. Not a single issue
found.

Hard Drive Sentinel found 0 problems with the drive.

IIRC, I even turned on hidden files and folders, found nothing.

I'm looking for ideas as to how to discover what is using up the space,
or at least telling W10 the space is in use.

I considered just resetting the system, but we have to find a product
key or two, as well as make sure he knows his Windows sign in information.




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 59.0.1 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.6.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

Make that sequoiaview
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/freezi...posted-public/

"MJP" wrote in message news
Run something like sequiaview to give a graphic representation, large
folders/files are easy to distinguish.

MJP

"Ken Springer" wrote in message news
I've got a friend with Windows 10 on a recent Dell laptop. He's
currently on the road, so as of this writing, I can't get you the latest
and greatest info about the system. I do know the latest W10 update is
not installed due to insufficient space.

His Windows folder is just over 70GB in size! And his hard drive is
just 120GB, an SSD. The drive in my computer is just over 20GB.

Ran some of the typical clean up programs, found nothing. Virus scan,
SuperAntiSpyware, Adware Cleaner, and Malwarebytes. Not a single issue
found.

Hard Drive Sentinel found 0 problems with the drive.

IIRC, I even turned on hidden files and folders, found nothing.

I'm looking for ideas as to how to discover what is using up the space,
or at least telling W10 the space is in use.

I considered just resetting the system, but we have to find a product
key or two, as well as make sure he knows his Windows sign in information.




--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 59.0.1 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.6.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 08/27/2018 09:25 AM, MJP wrote:
Run something like sequiaview to give a graphic representation, large
folders/files are easy to distinguish.

MJP

"Ken Springer"Â* wrote in message news
I've got a friend with Windows 10 on a recent Dell laptop.Â* He's
currently on the road, so as of this writing, I can't get you the latest
and greatest info about the system.Â* I do know the latest W10 update is
not installed due to insufficient space.

His Windows folder is just over 70GB in size!Â* And his hard drive is
just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer is just over 20GB.

Ran some of the typical clean up programs, found nothing.Â* Virus scan,
SuperAntiSpyware, Adware Cleaner, and Malwarebytes.Â* Not a single issue
found.

Hard Drive Sentinel found 0 problems with the drive.

IIRC, I even turned on hidden files and folders, found nothing.

I'm looking for ideas as to how to discover what is using up the space,
or at least telling W10 the space is in use.

I considered just resetting the system, but we have to find a product
key or two, as well as make sure he knows his Windows sign in information.




You probably mean http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/ Sequoiaview.

In article , Ken Springer
wrote:

I've got a friend with Windows 10 on a recent Dell laptop. He's
....
I considered just resetting the system, but we have to find a product
key or two,

no you don't. once activated, win10 doesn't need a product key to
reinstall. it uses its entitlement.

On 8/27/2018 9:08 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
And his hard drive is just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer is
just over 20GB.
Check the temp folders, and the softwaredistribution folder in Windows,
Nearly every thing can be deleted in these folders except those that
belong to the OS system

--
2018: The year we learn to play the great game of Euchre

On 8/27/18 7:51 AM, nospam wrote:
In article , Ken Springer
wrote:

I've got a friend with Windows 10 on a recent Dell laptop. He's
...
I considered just resetting the system, but we have to find a product
key or two,

no you don't. once activated, win10 doesn't need a product key to
reinstall. it uses its entitlement.


But his copy of Office does. :-)

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 59.0.1 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.6.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 08/27/2018 9:12 AM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 8/27/2018 9:08 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
And his hard drive is just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer is
just over 20GB.
Check the temp folders,Â* and the softwaredistribution folder in Windows,
Nearly every thing can be deleted in these folders except those that
belong to the OS system


You might like Windirstat or Treesize among others.

Rene

On 08/27/2018 10:46 AM, Rene Lamontagne wrote:
On 08/27/2018 9:12 AM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 8/27/2018 9:08 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
And his hard drive is just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer
is just over 20GB.
Check the temp folders,Â* and the softwaredistribution folder in
Windows, Nearly every thing can be deleted in these folders except
those that belong to the OS system


You might like Windirstat or Treesize among others.

Rene

+1 treesize free https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

+1 C:\windows\SoftwareDistribution. When I have issues installing a
new update or build I delete softwaredistribution totally and it usually
clears things up. I find nearly 7+ gigs in there.

On 8/27/18 8:12 AM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 8/27/2018 9:08 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
And his hard drive is just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer is
just over 20GB.
Check the temp folders, and the softwaredistribution folder in Windows,
Nearly every thing can be deleted in these folders except those that
belong to the OS system


HI, Keith,

I did all of this last Tuesday, and IIRC, cleaned the temp folder. I
didn't think about software distribution, I'll check that when he gets
home, hopefully sometime this week.

Can you safely "dump" everything in the software distribution folder?

--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.11.6
Firefox 59.0.1 (64 bit)
Thunderbird 52.6.0
"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
and it's gone!"

On 08/27/2018 10:52 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
On 8/27/18 8:12 AM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 8/27/2018 9:08 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
And his hard drive is just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer is
just over 20GB.
Check the temp folders,Â* and the softwaredistribution folder in Windows,
Nearly every thing can be deleted in these folders except those that
belong to the OS system


HI, Keith,

I did all of this last Tuesday, and IIRC, cleaned the temp folder.Â* I
didn't think about software distribution, I'll check that when he gets
home, hopefully sometime this week.

Can you safely "dump" everything in the software distribution folder?

One of many hits on google:
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/softw...der-in-windows
Yes.

On 8/27/2018 10:52 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
On 8/27/18 8:12 AM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 8/27/2018 9:08 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
And his hard drive is just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer is
just over 20GB.
Check the temp folders,Â* and the softwaredistribution folder in Windows,
Nearly every thing can be deleted in these folders except those that
belong to the OS system


HI, Keith,

I did all of this last Tuesday, and IIRC, cleaned the temp folder.Â* I
didn't think about software distribution, I'll check that when he gets
home, hopefully sometime this week.

Can you safely "dump" everything in the software distribution folder?

I have found that every thing that can be deleted can be deleted safely.
There are some files in the DataStore folder that can not. Actually
you can over look the files in the data store folders as their size is
usually small

If I have deleted a lot files, I always run the Update / Troubleshooter
from Setting, as a security blanket.


It is my understanding the $getcurrent can also be deleted but I would
research it before I deleted the folder.


--
2018: The year we learn to play the great game of Euchre

On 8/27/2018 11:18 AM, Big Al wrote:
On 08/27/2018 10:52 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
On 8/27/18 8:12 AM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
On 8/27/2018 9:08 AM, Ken Springer wrote:
And his hard drive is just 120GB, an SSD.Â* The drive in my computer is
just over 20GB.
Check the temp folders,Â* and the softwaredistribution folder in Windows,
Nearly every thing can be deleted in these folders except those that
belong to the OS system


HI, Keith,

I did all of this last Tuesday, and IIRC, cleaned the temp folder.Â* I
didn't think about software distribution, I'll check that when he gets
home, hopefully sometime this week.

Can you safely "dump" everything in the software distribution folder?

One of many hits on google:
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/softw...der-in-windows
Yes.

I have found that the file can be deleted without shutting down the
update server as described in the article above.
(net stop wuauserv
net stop bits)

The files that I mentioned in DataStore are the ones opened by the
Update server.

Usually there is no need to run the Update / Troubleshooter, but if
there is some deleted that should not be, it corrects the problem

--
2018: The year we learn to play the great game of Euchre

On Mon, 27 Aug 2018 07:08:00 -0600, Ken Springer wrote:

Ran some of the typical clean up programs, found nothing. Virus scan,
SuperAntiSpyware, Adware Cleaner, and Malwarebytes. Not a single issue
found.

What about the built-in Windows Disk Clean-up?

I'm looking for ideas as to how to discover what is using up the space,
or at least telling W10 the space is in use.

Run Windows Disk Clean-up, click the button "Clean Up System Files", and
while in "Clean Up System Files" check the space used by (for example)
"Windows Update Clean-up".


To run Windows Disk Clean-up

(a) Right-click on the drive in Windows Explorer and choose "Properties".
On the Properties pop-up, "General" tab, click the button "Disk Clean-up".

or,

(b) Click on the search magnifying glass icon on the taskbar and type
"Disk Clean-up".


--
Kind regards
Ralph

MJP wrote:

Run something like sequiaview to give a graphic representation, large
folders/files are easy to distinguish.

I use TreeSize Free. While handy to find the obviously huge files or
folders, they query the file system using standard system file calls.
That means they cannot show you more than what Windows Explorer is
willing to show you (except hidden- and system-attributed files will be
seen by the file size tools rather than hidden as in Windows Explorer).
These tools are useful but not complete.

The problem with those type of utilities is they use the queries from
the file system API to determine file size. You could have a file that
looks like 10KB in size but when you copy or transfer it the actual size
is 10GB. Alternate Data Streams, availble only NTFS, are not accounted
for in a normal file size query.

I just did a scan (using StreamArmor) on my C: drive for files that have
ADSes. The largest has Windows Explorer saying it is a 1KB .url file
but it has a 370KB ADS to hold the favicon image. The reason the sizing
tools return a layout so quick is that they don't actually scan each
file to check for ADS content.

Such tools also won't reveal when a stacked file I/O driver is hiding a
portion of the disk space in the file system. For example, Comodo's
TimeMachine (flaky and defunct) to save snapshots of the state of the OS
(well, its partition), some backup programs, and other tools as well as
malware will use a driver the hide away a portion of the file system,
like to save state snapshots or backup images to protect them from users
accidentally deleting them or ransomware from finding them or AV
scanners from finding their malicious content. I forget which backup
program that I trialed but it saved snapshots (not the backups) inside
the same partition as the OS but use a kernel driver to hide that
section of the file system.

If the tool uses queries to the file system to get file or folder sizes,
they won't know about ADSes or secreted portions of the file system
hidden by rootkit-like drivers.

Users often don't realize how much disk space is reserved for restore
points. Normally you won't see this folder or its contents used for
system restore points (System Volume Information) unless you disable the
option to hide system protected files in the view settings of
Windows/File Explorer (which will then let you see the folder but refuse
to let you navigate to within it). Even if a 3rd party tool shows the
folder, it may not show the space consumed by that folder. TreeSize
Free will show that folder along with its disk consumption. It will
show the files for the restore points (each given a filename that looks
like a GUID). For me, the current consumption is 7GB. That is larger
than the disk usage quota configured for restore points. The restore
points (files) are regulated to the disk quota, not the other ancilliary
files. The disk quota is for reserving space, not for immediately
occupying or locking up the space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mTSm_k6JF8

Windows/File Explorer (when protected system files are configured to
show) will show the "System Volume Information" folder as 0 bytes in
size with 0 files. Does SequioaView show this folder and delve into it
to show each of the restore points, so it can show a correct size for
that folder? Another tool is WinDirStat (https://windirstat.net/) but I
haven't used it in a long time.

If you disable system restore, its cache gets deleted (you are warned).
Sometimes the restore points are handy, like stepping back after
applying a Windows update, but often they don't fix a problem and they
do NOT restore the state of your disk back to a prior state (you need
backup images for that). The user can configure how much maximum space
from the file system that the restore points will consume, or they can
disable system protection. To get at the System Properties wizard, run:

C:\Windows\System32\control.exe sysdm.cpl
(works in Win7, might still work in Win10)

Then select the System Protection tab. Is protection enabled for any
drive? If so, select that drive and click the Configure button. How
much reserved space can restore points be allowed to consume in the
drive? The bigger the cache, the more restore points can be stored;
i.e., the farther back you can restore (but only the system files). The
disk space usage for restore points is not immediately consumed. It
gets consumed as more restore points are created. Some are created
periodically (1 week for Win 7/8/10). They get created automatically
for a Windows update. Some installers will create a restore point
before they begin installation of a program, especially when installing
a driver. Users can manually create them. If the disk usage setting
for restore points is high, the disk (well, the file system) gradually
gets more of its space consumed as more restore points are created.

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-r...-point-2625988
Windows 10 & 8: Disk space for restore points can be as much as 100% of
the hard drive to as little as 1%.

Of course, if system protection is disabled on all drives then disk
consumption by non-existent restore points is zero. I leave system
protection enabled for the C: drive but at 4% maximum disk usage just in
case I need to escape a recent Windows update. I'm using a 256GB SSD
for the C: partition for the OS and apps. 4% of 256GB = 6.4GB; however,
that doesn't mean that I instantly use up 6.4GB for restore point, only
that old ones will have to get deleted so new ones can be saved to
remain inside the 4% disk usage quota. For me, currently there are 11
restore points in that folder going back just over 2 weeks. I might
reduce disk usage (max) to 2%; however, my SSD is only 19% occupied, so
I don't have to change anything right now.

The OP said the \Windows folder is bloated. The above about restore
points is to point out another possible disk consumption. As restore
points get older, they are less applicable and you end up undoing more
than you wanted. For me, under \Windows, the biggest consumer of disk
space is the winsxs folder (side-by-side to avoid DLL Hell) currently at
10.5GB; see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side-by-side_assembly

If the user's computer is crashing a lot, a lot of disk space might get
chewed up with dump files. How much depends on if crash reporting is
configured to save a full dump (kernel memory), small, or none. As I
recall, full dumps will be the same size as the physical system RAM
size. For me, and probably the default, the dumps get stored under
%systemroot%\path, where %systemroot% is the environment variable
normally pointing at the \Windows folder. path is the Minidump folder
for small dumps and the MEMORY.DMP file for full dumps. If the option
"Overwrite any existing file" is not enabled, you accrue dump files
instead of keeping just the last one. Since the dumps are stored under
the \Windows folder is one candidate why that folder keeps growing.
Sometimes users deliberately disable the overwrite option because they
need to track crashes across multiple boots of the OS.

The OP said he used cleanup tools; however, no mention if those tools
included the old Windows version folder or the update backups. For Run
the Disk Cleanup wizard (cleanmgr.exe), select a drive, wait for the
basic scan to complete, elect system files, select the drive again, wait
for another scan, and check what categories are selected for cleanup.
If the OS was an upgrade, are you really planning to revert to the old
OS version? If not, and if presented, get rid of the old Windows
version backup. The cleanup wizard will also let you delete all but the
last restore point: go to its More Options tab and click on the Clean Up
button in the "System Restore and Shadow Copies" section (but this won't
affect the size of the \Windows folder, just the "System Volume
Information" folder but that impact disk consumption, too).