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Questions tagged [winsxs]

55 questions
183
votes
12 answers

Why does the /winsxs folder grow so large, and can it be made smaller?

A Vista virtual machine I use only has a 10 GB virtual hard disk -- and I'm worried about it running out of space over time. I used TreeSize to check for the culprits.. And the primary culprit is that /winsxs or "Windows Side-By-Side" folder. What…
Jeff Atwood
  • 24,402
15
votes
1 answer

What is the servicing stack and how does it work?

In Windows, there's something called the servicing stack which seems to fulfill the role of a package manager. I don't understand it very well, only that it seems that Component-Based Servicing (CBS), Windows Installer, Windows Update, and WinSxS…
bwDraco
  • 46,683
14
votes
2 answers

cleanup C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes and PendingRenames

Both, the PendingDeletes and the PendingRenames folder within the windows temp folder are about 1GB in size. Is there any save way to empty or delete those folders? C:\Windows\WinSxS >10GB C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp\PendingDeletes…
Matthias
  • 297
8
votes
6 answers

Can winsxs be moved and if so how?

I know it can't be deleted and while there are some posts that talk about making it smaller, they have not worked for me. At this point my 18 GB winsxs folder is taking up almost half of the drive that I have the OS on. I have tons of space on other…
MarkB
  • 263
7
votes
1 answer

How can I remove the contents of the '/winsxs' folder from an old, nonsystem drive?

I've found plenty of posts talking about whether you can or cannot or should or should not delete or modify the contents of the /windows/winsxs folder. However I have a new installation of windows on a new drive and I'm unable to delete these files…
vertigoelectric
  • 593
7
votes
0 answers

Can I safely delete all inside the C:\Windows\WinSxS\Temp folder only?

I have reviewed the Similar questions suggested after creating my post Title and none are direct or helpful just for my needs. In Windows 10 Pro, v1909, build 18363.1316 clean installed in Nov. 2019 I am cleaning up files preparing to do deep file…
Willie
  • 121
5
votes
2 answers

Trying to clean out winsxs using DISM, getting an error

I am running out of space on my 64GB SSD drive, and winsxs is largely to blame. Here's a screenshot of the problem Also, notice that CBS.log file (but that's a problem for another day) As you can see, I have the latest updates installed, and yet…
PBG
  • 499
5
votes
3 answers

Cleaning WinSxS- doesn't work

I've tried the cmd command and Windows cleaner with elevated privileges, but neither has cleaned the WinSxS folder. It says that the task has been completed in the CMD, but WinSxS is still 14 GB. I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium x64.
Jack
  • 369
4
votes
2 answers

What does “ICACLS C:\Windows\winsxs” do?

Originally posted by me on Stack Overflow, reposted here because this seems like a more relevant site for this question. Some wording has been slightly edited and more information has been added. When typing "icacls /?" into Windows command prompt,…
p-p-j
  • 43
4
votes
1 answer

WinSxS folder minimizing with DISM online /SPSuperseded vs DISM online /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

In order to minimize WinSxS folder you can use the following DISM commands: dism /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase Using the /ResetBase switch with the /StartComponentCleanup parameter of DISM.exe on a running version of…
Mike
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4
votes
0 answers

Meaning of last 16 characters in WinSxS manifest file names

The following are two example filenames from the %WINDIR%\WinSxS\Manifests…
gollum
  • 486
3
votes
2 answers

Deleting OLD files in winsxs

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…
jamida
  • 161
3
votes
1 answer

can't remove windows 7 update files

I'm trying to free-up space on my windows 7 OS drive. I've install all windows updates to-date and the Windows folder has almost doubled in size. I've read some articles on how to remove unneeded windows update files via disk cleanup. When I do a…
Dili
  • 139
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3
votes
3 answers

Disable Windows 8.1 Component Store (WinSxS/DriverStore) automatic compression?

Windows 8.1 has a new Scheduled Task (Servicing\StartComponentCleanup) which will automatically delete or compress superseded and unused files from the Side by Side store, DriverStore and drivers folder. I was wondering if anyone knows if it is…
Quad5Ny
  • 159
3
votes
1 answer

SnippingTool.exe not located where it appears to be?

I just bought a new SteelSeries mouse. I'm trying program button 6 to launch "SnippingTool.exe". SnippingTool.exe appears to be located at "C:\windows\system32\SnippingTool.exe" or at least it shows up in Windows Explorer that way. However, in the…
Triynko
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