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I got a new laptop and did the Windows transfer process to move the old laptop files to the new one. It seems along the way it also transferred a bunch of files in the winsxs folder.

I know this because the new laptop is an Intel Core i7 processor and a bunch of folders with names like "amd64_microsoft-windows" exist in that folder from 2009.

I just did the Windows cleanup process and rebooted, but these folders remain. Can I manually delete them or how can I get rid of them if the manual deletion is not an option?

Peter Mortensen
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jamida
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2 Answers2

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Install the following update:

Disk Cleanup Wizard addon lets users delete outdated Windows updates on Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Run Disk Cleanup and now you can uninstall updates (Windows Update Cleanup) which are replaced by newer security updates and are no longer needed. This can save several GB of space.

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Peter Mortensen
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magicandre1981
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2

You can't get rid of them at all. Many programs are using older versions of the Visual C++ Runtime (and other libraries, of course), for example. That's what this folder is for. It's perfectly normal for it to be many gigabytes in size.

Be aware though that the folder consists of many hard links, so not all programs are able to correctly calculate its size.

user219095
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