Tweaking Windows 10

RadCazz · 13 Dec 2017

Not sure if this should go in "Customization" thread, but, here it goes:

Hello. I am trying to 'tweak' my copy of Windows 10. One of my projects is to delete unecessary files, freeing up disk space (my primary 1 TB SSD is already almost full). So, this I have planned:

1. Delete old versions of Windows libraries from the WinSxS folder.
2. Remove old Windows version archive.
3. Delete temporary Windows Update files.
4. Delete Windows pre-sale demo files.
5. Delete all system resore point files except for the last three (just in case).

Is the above a good idea? Do you foresee any problems?
I'd like to know.

Thanks for help!

TairikuOkami · 13 Dec 2017

RadCazz said:

One of my projects is to delete unecessary files, freeing up disk space

I have something similar, I use it after Windows updates, but it removes all system restore points. Windows has Last Good Know Configuration, so system restore is not that needed, besides there are better options.

[Batch] Windows Cleanup - Pastebin.com

cereberus · 13 Dec 2017

TairikuOkami said:

I have something similar, I use it after Windows updates, but it removes all system restore points. Windows has Last Good Know Configuration, so system restore is not that needed, besides there are better options.

[Batch] Windows Cleanup - Pastebin.com

Restore points are flakey at best of times.

I always create a full image backup periodically, and create a differential or incremental image backip before messing around using Macrium Reflect. I have turned off system restore as it does not offer anything new.

Bree · 13 Dec 2017

RadCazz said:

Hello. I am trying to 'tweak' my copy of Windows 10. One of my projects is to delete unecessary files, freeing up disk space (my primary 1 TB SSD is already almost full)...

You're not going to gain much by slimming down the Windows system. At most it's 25GB. The restore points are a good one to get rid of though, they can consume a lot of space if you haven't set an upper limit.

Change System Protection Max Storage Size for Drive in Windows 10

No, you should be looking elsewhere. A good place to start is Settings > System > Storage. Click on your C: drive to expand it to a list of what's using the space.

View Storage Usage of Drives in Windows 10

Cr00zng · 13 Dec 2017

Bree said:

You're not going to gain much by slimming down the Windows system. At most it's 25GB. The restore points are a good one to get rid of though, they can consume a lot of space if you haven't set an upper limit.

Is that a mistype Bree? The Windows 10 "Windows" folder on my system is 73GBs. Or it's my system that overly fat...

Josey Wales · 13 Dec 2017

Cr00zng said:

Is that a mistype Bree? The Windows 10 "Windows" folder on my system is 73GBs. Or it's my system that overly fat...

Did you remove the Old Windows Folder?

TairikuOkami · 13 Dec 2017

Cr00zng said:

The Windows 10 "Windows" folder on my system is 73GBs. Or it's my system that overly fat...

That is humungous.

My Windows takes 9,6GB and the whole system partition takes ~13GB.
But check the size though some disk usage utility, Explorer includes symlinks, so it multiplies it.

Josey Wales · 13 Dec 2017

TairikuOkami said:

That is humungous.

My Windows takes 9,6GB and the whole system partition takes ~13GB.
But check the size though some disk usage utility, Explorer includes symlinks, so it multiplies it.

That script of yours works wonders. Thanks

Bree · 13 Dec 2017

Cr00zng said:

Is that a mistype Bree? The Windows 10 "Windows" folder on my system is 73GBs. Or it's my system that overly fat...

No, it is not a mistype. You can get a misleading size for the Windows folder if you use File Explorer and look at its Properties. That's because the WinSxS folder contains a lot of hard links, each of which is counted as being a separate file but in reality they all point to a single physical file. For a true measure of the size, look at Settings > System > Storage.

Disk Clean up uses the same simplistic algorithm to calculate size, which is why it sometimes reports 3.99TB to clean up.

To get the true size of the WinSxS component store (and its apparent size Explorer would report) from an Admin command prompt type:

dism /online /cleanup-image /AnalyzeComponentStore

This will also tell you how much space can be reclaimed. You can use Disk Clean up's 'clean system files' button to do so. If you prefer, you can also use:

dism /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

Analyze Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

Clean Up Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10

For the ultimate reduction of size, but at the expense of not being able to uninstall any previous updates, see /ResetBase in Option Three.

Cr00zng · 14 Dec 2017

The WinSxS command line disk clean up (thanks Bree) did free up some space, the folder size had been reduced from 7.56GBs to 6.36GBs. TheTreeSize utility shows this:

Deducting the "Installer" folder size from "Windows" folder size results in 23.9GBs, which is in line with most of your quotes about the "Windows" folder size.

About the system in question...

Windows 8.1 was initially installed five or six years ego and a week or so ego, updated to Windows 10. The folder "C:/Windows.old" is 6.2GBs and not part of of the "C:/Windows" folder.

AFAIK, messing with the "Installer" folder can break applications, or even Windows. The system is installed on a 256GBs partion of the 1TB SSD drive; this partition still has ~100GBs free space and could be extended, if needed. So, space is really not an issue, even if some of the folders are way too large.

I did look at ways to cleanup the "Installer" folder, preferably by a utility, instead of manually moving the folder to other drives. For example. PatchCleaner seems promising but even that could break programs.

Is there any safe way to reduce the size of the "Installer" folder?

PS: Yes, clean install of Windows 10 would drastically reduce the folder size...