[Hotrossi]

Can someone advise please.

I'm running Vista Home Premium sp2 on an Acer Aspire 5715z Laptop, with Pent dual-core t2310 1.4GHz & 2GB DDR2
I now have approx 10GB of folders in my windows program sub folder: winsxs, apart from the backup, Catalog & ManifestCache & Manifest folders that are also in the same folder, these other are folders have various descriptions like msil_microsft.build etc,etc, and x86_microsoft etc,etc,etc, most of the folders description start with x86 but with many changing descriptions like x86_microsft-windows-cdosys.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.1638_zh-cn_ etc,etc,etc, inside the folder it usually contain a few or single ******.exe.mui or ******.dll.mui file.

These files all have differing dates going back as far as 2008 to present day
My question is are all these necessary system files or do I have a problem?
I have attached a pdf screenshot
 ScreenSnap_2010.07.06.pdf (78.4K)
Number of downloads: 2
Many thanks

[Tarun]

When I ran Vista I noticed that the System Restore took up the most space so I would remove all but the most recent System Restore point, then I would run CCleaner. Perhaps give that a try along with uninstalling any old, unnecessary programs? As a sidenote, on Windows 7 my winsxs folder has 6,769 items.

Being a part of the Windows folder I wouldn't recommend removing anything from it personally.

[cluberti]

It's worth noting that the WinSXS cache will grow over time as you add patches, updates, etc - the folders will be named (usually) <arch>_component_version_language. The reason for this growth is that every time a new version of a file is installed onto the system, the old version is kept in it's WinSXS folder (SXS == side by side in Windows nonclemature), and the files you see elsewhere on disk are just symlinks to the file(s) in the WinSXS folder once they've been updated.

See this. Note that if you install a Vista service pack, afterwards you can run the cleanup tool (vsp1cln.exe for Vista SP1, compcln.exe for SP2) which will remove all versions from the SXS that are versioned prior to the service pack cleanup utility you're running. So, for example, if you upgraded to Vista SP2, you should have run compcln.exe afterwards to make SP2 "permanent" and remove all previous RTM and SP1 versions of binaries from the SXS if they had newer updates in SP2.

[Hotrossi]

Hi, many thanks for the help and yes, after seeing Taruns previous topic I did run the Compcin.exe and it did free up a little, it was just that I was getting a little tight for disk space and could not believe that the Winsxs was taking up nearly 10GB, not being a guru on pc's I thought the best thing to do was to put it too this forum before I start meddling... lol, however many thanks for your help and I will have a read of the Technet blog you suggest.

cluberti, on 06 July 2010 - 07:38 PM, said:

It's worth noting that the WinSXS cache will grow over time as you add patches, updates, etc - the folders will be named (usually) <arch>_component_version_language. The reason for this growth is that every time a new version of a file is installed onto the system, the old version is kept in it's WinSXS folder (SXS == side by side in Windows nonclemature), and the files you see elsewhere on disk are just symlinks to the file(s) in the WinSXS folder once they've been updated.

See this. Note that if you install a Vista service pack, afterwards you can run the cleanup tool (vsp1cln.exe for Vista SP1, compcln.exe for SP2) which will remove all versions from the SXS that are versioned prior to the service pack cleanup utility you're running. So, for example, if you upgraded to Vista SP2, you should have run compcln.exe afterwards to make SP2 "permanent" and remove all previous RTM and SP1 versions of binaries from the SXS if they had newer updates in SP2.

[James_A]

So, if I can reduce the excellent technical advice given above by cluberti into simple English (I'm not going to even attempt to translate the made-up word "componentization" into French/German/Italian/Portuguese or anything else for that matter) and at the same time explain it to less advanced users, I come up with:-

Starting with Vista & Server 2008:

• The WinSXS folder tree will be large (from about 5 Gigabytes to 10 Gigabytes and beyond);
  
• Many folders will begin with the letters x86_ or amd64_;
  
• The files are part of Windows and therefore must not be manually deleted;
  
• If you are concerned about running out of disk space, run vsp1cln.exe (Vista Service Pack 1) or compcln.exe (Vista Service Pack 2).

Anyone disagree?

.

[Hotrossi]

As always, thanks Tarun, I did look at my System restore option but there are not many saves as such, only the current or previous month, when I tried to do a system restore after cleaning out as you suggested with CCleaner etc, it said creating a system restore point has been disabled by "Group Policy"? It must have been some tick box I inadvertantly ticked when I got my laptop, so I'm not sure where or how to change that. once again many thanks.

Tarun, on 06 July 2010 - 11:11 AM, said:

When I ran Vista I noticed that the System Restore took up the most space so I would remove all but the most recent System Restore point, then I would run CCleaner. Perhaps give that a try along with uninstalling any old, unnecessary programs? As a sidenote, on Windows 7 my winsxs folder has 6,769 items.

Being a part of the Windows folder I wouldn't recommend removing anything from it personally.

[Hotrossi]

As an addendum to your comment on the number of items in your Win7 - Winsxs folder, I have 46,180 items in 10,807 folders?... hummm? think I must have got my laundry and shopping list in there as well somehow??... lol

Hotrossi, on 07 July 2010 - 06:20 AM, said:

As always, thanks Tarun, I did look at my System restore option but there are not many saves as such, only the current or previous month, when I tried to do a system restore after cleaning out as you suggested with CCleaner etc, it said creating a system restore point has been disabled by "Group Policy"? It must have been some tick box I inadvertantly ticked when I got my laptop, so I'm not sure where or how to change that. once again many thanks.

Tarun, on 06 July 2010 - 11:11 AM, said:

When I ran Vista I noticed that the System Restore took up the most space so I would remove all but the most recent System Restore point, then I would run CCleaner. Perhaps give that a try along with uninstalling any old, unnecessary programs? As a sidenote, on Windows 7 my winsxs folder has 6,769 items.

Being a part of the Windows folder I wouldn't recommend removing anything from it personally.

[Tarun]

Actually I was referring to cleaning out all but the latest System Restore points. This can be done by going to Computer > Right clicking your hard drive > Properties > Disk Cleanup > More Options tab > System Restore (and shadow copies) > Clean up.

As for your System Restore point creation being disabled, did you or any third party program make any alterations that you're aware of?

[Hotrossi]

Hi, Yes I realised what you meant but as I had only a few restore points i.e. 3 or 4 so, to be on the safe side, I did not want to remove them all but the last one so-to-speak, 3 or 4 I can live with...lol, As for my creating a restore point, I would love to get back to being able to make one, as it is quite useful to make one once you have changed or cleaned up etc, but to answer your question (which I had not thought of before, as I presently can't imagine much benefit of a program making that sort of change etc, - no doubt you will soon tell me... hehehe!).. No, I'm not aware of a 3rd prty software prog that would have made specific changes concerning restore points? being a suckit-&-see silver surfer newbie and not being too clued up on Policies etc, I have no clear idea how to "get into or work on" Group Policy to even make any amendments etc, some time ago I tried looking through the registry & the likes of Computer Management/Apps&Servce logs/Microsoft/windows/group policy etc, but could not see any obvious change or edit that I could make regarding restore points etc, so not being too confident at the time, I left it as it was for the last year or so and just lived with it.

Tarun, on 07 July 2010 - 03:05 PM, said:

Actually I was referring to cleaning out all but the latest System Restore points. This can be done by going to Computer > Right clicking your hard drive > Properties > Disk Cleanup > More Options tab > System Restore (and shadow copies) > Clean up.

As for your System Restore point creation being disabled, did you or any third party program make any alterations that you're aware of?

[Tarun]

I've been looking into this issue and found something that should help.

To restore your operating system to the original installation default security settings, follow these steps:

Click Start > Run > type cmd and press Enter or click Ok.

Windows XP:
In the command prompt enter: secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose

Windows Vista/7:
In the command prompt enter: secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

You receive a "Task is completed" message and a warning message that something could not be done. You can safely ignore this message. For more information about this message, see the %windir%\Security\Logs\Scesrv.log file.