# winsxs in vista



## von kain (Aug 3, 2008)

my folder winsxs (side by side) folder have been grown for some time and now is 10.5gb and i wan't to get it deleted or smaller anyone have any idea how this can be done??if there is any way.

please  don't start a vista bashing dialogue.


my vista is x64 ultimate


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## Deleted member 24505 (Aug 3, 2008)

Were is that folder? i will check mine out.i am on vista HP 32bit.


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## psyko12 (Aug 3, 2008)

It's in C:\Windows, assuming C: is the os drive... Mine's over 9gb... I unno why it grows that big

Read here.. It's also an important folder..


> The Winsxs folder, stores multiple copies of dll's in order to let multiple applications run in Windows without any compatibility problem. If you browse inside, you will see what look like a lot of duplicate dlls, each having the same name. These are actually, different versions of the same files which are being stored; as different programs may require different versions. In short, Winsxs, which stands for 'Windows Side By Side', is Vista's native assembly cache. Libraries which are being by multiple applications are stored there. This feature was first introduced, in Windows ME and was considered as Microsoft's solution to the so-called 'dll hell' issues that plagued Windows 9x.



http://www.winvistaclub.com/f16.html


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## Deleted member 24505 (Aug 3, 2008)

Mines about 7gb.


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## mullered07 (Aug 3, 2008)

wow that takes the piss, mines at 12gb and i only have 120gb data on this hdd, so thats approx 10%, its not like i have a load of programs installed either. so basically this folder will keep growing and eating up my hdd  i dont think theres anyway to clean it either


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## Lillebror (Aug 3, 2008)

Holy biscuit! mine is at 22gb!


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## AsRock (Aug 3, 2008)

Maybe for each program you install it adds stuff to that folder as backup ?.  Not have much running on my Vista x64Ult 7.46 GB.


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## xu^ (Aug 3, 2008)

15.3gb !!  only had Vista installed for 2 weeks..


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## johnspack (Aug 3, 2008)

Wow,  didn't notice that,  around 2 weeks old at 11.1gigs.... and still almost a clean install.


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## DrPepper (Aug 3, 2008)

I had 50 gb missing a few days ago  this might explain another 10 - 20 gigs.


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## sneekypeet (Aug 3, 2008)

Ive got a couple of months going on this install, and I sit at 12.2GB in the folder!


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## AsRock (Aug 3, 2008)

Hope this helps.



> The Winsxs folder, stores multiple copies of dll's in order to let multiple applications run in Windows without any compatibility problem. If you browse inside, you will see what look like a lot of duplicate dlls, each having the same name. These are actually, different versions of the same files which are being stored; as different programs may require different versions. In short, Winsxs, which stands for 'Windows Side By Side', is Vista's native assembly cache. Libraries which are being by multiple applications are stored there. This feature was first introduced, in Windows ME and was considered as Microsoft's solution to the so-called 'dll hell' issues that plagued Windows 9x.



http://www.winvistaclub.com/f16.html


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## Urbklr (Aug 3, 2008)

Huh, my laptop's not bad....just 5GB, and it is 2 months old.


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## Kursah (Aug 3, 2008)

Mine is at about 17GB, had V64 installed for a few months now...runs great, I didn't get a large HDD for nothing...too bad I only did a 25GB partition for the OS tho lol! I still have 6.5GB free on my OS drive atm though...that doesn't leave much for the rest of the OS itself tho, interesting for sure. I'm not too worried about it, my OS runs great and stable, my games kickass, and Vista is limited to a 25GB partition, so let it is limited, good or bad, it can only go so far!


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## johnspack (Aug 3, 2008)

Now I know why I made a 150gig part for vista!


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## mullered07 (Aug 3, 2008)

AsRock said:


> Hope this helps.
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.winvistaclub.com/f16.html



um that was already posted by 





> psyko12


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## Urbklr (Aug 3, 2008)

Only 22MB in XP


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## spud107 (Aug 4, 2008)

better include the dllcache and i386 folders for a fairer comparison,
still only a couple hundred mb at most lol


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## HAL7000 (Aug 4, 2008)

24.8 in XP as well, maybe this is the mojave experiment like area 51,,,,it really doesn't exist.


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## AsRock (Aug 4, 2008)

mullered07 said:


> um that was already posted by



Oops my bad haha. I hope some have a sense of humor lol.


But anyways at least we know what it is ..   BUT dayum lol...


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## Lillebror (Aug 4, 2008)

I tested a little fix on my other computer - This is what i had before:







This is what i got after the fix:





(sorry for the danish stuff)

Anyways, to 'use' this fix you have to have sp1 on your vista.. Then you go to start - run - cmd
Then you write "Vsp1cln.exe" without the "" and then you wait, and its done 

*BUT!!!* You can't remove sp1 after using this. But then again.. Not even Chuck Norris would try to uninstall a service pack


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## Kursah (Aug 4, 2008)

I did it, took 2 seconds after pressing "Y" for acknowleging that SP1 cannot be uninstalled...the folder is now about 8.3GB, down quite a bit from a supposed 17gb...but my free space did not change, I have my PF at 1024MB min/max, so dunno what's up, but hell it sounded like a good thing to try, I'm not really worried about it tho!


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## von kain (Aug 4, 2008)

i wanted to thank all for your answers.

lillebror on my it doesn't' help


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## Lillebror (Aug 4, 2008)

You have to have servicepack 1 installed for vista.


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## CrackerJack (Aug 4, 2008)

i've got SP1 installed, tryed the clean up. But there still there.

edit: nevermind, the command that Lillebror gives is just for a SP1 clean up of coarse. But WINSYS folder should be left alone, http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/arch...in-Windows-XP,-Vista-and-Server-20032008.html


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## Cybrnook2002 (Aug 4, 2008)

DEEEAAAAAMMMMMMMMM  N    


Thats after your Vsp1cln.exe


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## CrackerJack (Aug 4, 2008)

the Vsp1cln.exe command is not going delete all of the winsxs folder, just the SP1 installtion folder(s)


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## von kain (Aug 5, 2008)

well on my laptop it does work it free about 2.5gb's cool but not on my desktop


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## von kain (Aug 6, 2008)

ok gents any other idea?


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## Cybrnook2002 (Aug 8, 2008)

HEY HEY, ok, totally retarded, but i shrunk my winsxs folder from 17 GB to 9 by simply right clicking my C: and running disk cleanup    I had some restore points in there and old temp files that were huge.


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## AsRock (Aug 8, 2008)

Cybrnook2002 said:


> HEY HEY, ok, totally retarded, but i shrunk my winsxs folder from 17 GB to 9 by simply right clicking my C: and running disk cleanup    I had some restore points in there and old temp files that were huge.




I tried that when this subject started and no change for me at least.


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## Cybrnook2002 (Aug 8, 2008)

AsRock said:


> I tried that when this subject started and no change for me at least.



Did you use the default check boxes , or did you select additional ones in the menu, i selected more. Also, I tabbed to the next and deleted the system restore points as I use acronis to backup my system.


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## CrackerJack (Aug 8, 2008)

I had to reinstall Vista yesterday, it the folder was around 15gb. I've got it down to 8.25gb. I can get more


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## AsRock (Aug 8, 2008)

CrackerJack said:


> I had to reinstall Vista yesterday, it the folder was around 15gb. I've got it down to 8.25gb. I can get more



Funny you bring that up as i booted up in Vista to check a few idea's about this and Poof it don't work right again crashes on boot 100% nothing changed lol..


Wanted to try out turning off System restore on it's own would clear some of it up lol.



Cybrnook2002 said:


> Did you use the default check boxes , or did you select additional ones in the menu, i selected more. Also, I tabbed to the next and deleted the system restore points as I use acronis to backup my system.




Selected them all lol.


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## Triprift (Aug 9, 2008)

9.3 gig for my folder meh no big deal.


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## CrackerJack (Aug 9, 2008)

AsRock said:


> Funny you bring that up as i booted up in Vista to check a few idea's about this and Poof it don't work right again crashes on boot 100% nothing changed lol..
> 
> Wanted to try out turning off System restore on it's own would clear some of it up lol.



I had a virus on my pc, so that was the reason for a reinstall. I just got some good programs to keep Vista to mini. And save HD space.


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## AsRock (Aug 9, 2008)

CrackerJack said:


> I had a virus on my pc, so that was the reason for a reinstall. I just got some good programs to keep Vista to mini. And save HD space.



Thought Vista was a virus for how much it goes wrong for some J/K.  i'll have a closer look in to what up set it tomorrow lol..

Well glad ya got rid of it.  does Vista back up viruses too like XP's restore.


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## Lillebror (Aug 9, 2008)

I found the best way to minimize the diskspace winsxs uses, is to reinstall vista, and then remove compatibility from vista.. It makes it down to like a gig or 2  and then not installing anything thats not "made for vista"


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