Reduce Windows size in HDD

Adalwar · 11 May 2016

Hi ,
sorry for my poor English.

Windows is tkaing around 20GB on my PC, and my HDD is only 32GB has 8GB free.

What and how can I reduce its size to a minimum size?

dalchina · 11 May 2016

Bear in mind that Windows creates a copy of the Windows folder when either
- there's a major upgrade build
- you do an in-place upgrade install repair

That is, you need 20Gb free for that.

That begs the question as to where you put your personal data and installed programs.

It is possible to shrink windows significantly- hopefully someone who's familiar with that may help- I've only read about it in passing.

Is that a SSD and do you have another disk in your laptop?

NavyLCDR · 11 May 2016

Adalwar,
Disk Cleanup - Open and Use in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Dalchina,
The OP probably has a netbook or tablet with Windows installed in 32 GB of eMMC memory. I have two of those devices, a tablet and a stick computer.

dalchina · 11 May 2016

Could be, tho' his specs say laptop, and he refers to a HDD... I read somewhere about shrinking Win 10 to some 8Gb.. but never took note as not relevant to me.

@Adalwar - could you complete the specs of the device you're interested in please?
System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums - Windows 10 Forums

http://www.windowscentral.com/how-re...s-10-footprint

Adalwar · 11 May 2016

dalchina said:

Bear in mind that Windows creates a copy of the Windows folder when either
- there's a major upgrade build
- you do an in-place upgrade install repair

That is, you need 20Gb free for that.

That begs the question as to where you put your personal data and installed programs.

It is possible to shrink windows significantly- hopefully someone who's familiar with that may help- I've only read about it in passing.

Is that a SSD and do you have another disk in your laptop?

Thank you .
Sorry for my mistake, it is a eMMC storage not a "real" HDD.
I can not upgrade, neither use more than 32GB SD-CARD.

@NaviLCDR - Thank you for the info. Disk Cleanup I use it since ages regulary.
Good point that with "Compression", I will try it.

cereberus · 11 May 2016

Windows 10 uses a compressed OS on tablets. By default it is normally on.

From an admin command prompt, type

Compact.exe /CompactOS:query

Windows 10 Feature Focus: CompactOS

When you run disk cleanup, select to delete old system files, and tick all boxes in popup list.

Assuming you can put an sd card in, you can change your user directories, and apps to use sd card (settings, sytem, storage).

Adalwar · 18 May 2016

cereberus said:

Windows 10 uses a compressed OS on tablets. By default it is normally on.

From an admin command prompt, type

Compact.exe /CompactOS:query

Windows 10 Feature Focus: CompactOS

When you run disk cleanup, select to delete old system files, and tick all boxes in popup list.

Assuming you can put an sd card in, you can change your user directories, and apps to use sd card (settings, sytem, storage).

Hi cereberus,
Thank you.
I cheked it with the CompactOS and is enabled.
I did clean the Drice C: and there not that much to win.
I there a way to uninstall Windows Native App´s. This is a very small laptop and space is required and I do not need / use a lot of that App´s

TairikuOkami · 18 May 2016

Adalwar said:

@NaviLCDR - Thank you for the info. Disk Cleanup I use it since ages regulary.

But do you use the full one or the standard one?
cleanmgr /sageset:65535 & cleanmgr /sagerun:65535

To decresse size of WinSxS's folder:
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

To remove all system restore points (disable system restore completely, if you do not use it)
vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /all /quiet

Additionally, you can use CCleaner + WiseCare, to free a few more hundreds MBs, like those 3 settings:

badrobot · 18 May 2016

Make sure to move your library folder location to a different storage drive if you have any. Don't save your data on the same drive as the OS.
I have an ASUS T-100 10" Windows tablet and as much as possible, I use portable apps instead of full programs that requires installation.

Berton · 18 May 2016

I have a Dell Venue 8 8" tablet that came with Win8.1 and now has Win10. It came with a 32GB SSD/Solid State Drive and used about 19GB of the space so I added a 64-bit MicroSDXC card for storage, probably will get a 128GB when prices drop a bit more. To save space I installed LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office, not only free but a smaller footprint.