[Guide] WinSxS Dupe removel

[aviv00]

Hello

Please Notice that WinSxS have system files and must NOT Fully removed

and low possibly that hotfix wont work [ gonna check it for sure soon ]

Anyway its could be recover easily with gimagex and ur iso or burned iso

before u do that guide on ur OS u should know i cant ensure that ur system will work properly

[well as i know its run Fine on vmware, tested Windows Server 2008 32bit and Vista Ultimate 32bit ]

i found fast way to remove the dupe files in WInSxS folder

files that dupe are mostly files that has been already installed on the system Like Windows media Player, windows defender Aero Tablet PC and so on....and that's why u dont need them

Logic explaination : Ms use winsxs to backup their components to future install

winsxs have system files and components files

components files that already installed used to be dupe

if its internal system files its wont be dupe the system will run them from winsxs dir

[i hope my logic is right]

as u see i use whereisit app to run dupe search

my personal iso is about 1.1gb the hdd space take around 3.3GB

so if ur iso is diff or u didnt use vlited its should be more then 1GB to delete

ok now lets go

1. im not sure how much its needed but u should login as Administrator

2. go to console [ with admin rights ofc ]

and run those cmds

cd c:\windows\winsxs [ take u to this folder ]
takeown /A /F *.* /r [ take ownership ]
icacls * /grant Administrator:(F) /t /c [ give u full access to it ]

3. WhereIsIt will take it all from here

just make ur disk image [ u can limit it to windows dir if ur drive is big and UnActive the Plugins will save time ]

make the dupe search [Ctrl+D] run it and make it sort as folder

delete all the files in c:\windows\WinSxS\.... [to make it fast make sure that u unmarked all the deletion options]

[edited 1.6.2008 exclude backup dir and Manifests]

Tip: edited 7.6.2008

use waik to pre-install ur feathers [with permanence="permanent"]

to get ride of those dirs and save more space [the system will delete them after the installatio]

and just for hold alt+n for few secs to skip the files that wont delete [ maybe they are in used ? ]

Hope u guys find it useful

Edited August 25, 2009 by aviv00

[nuhi]

Thx...but:

where is the warning that if they delete (insert who knows which) folder in Winsxs they won't be able to boot.

And that hotfixes might fail to install after tampering with Winsxs doubles. Oh even and Control Panel - Features. Try it

[aviv00]

ok i will try

[aviv00]

Thx...but:

where is the warning that if they delete

the app "tell" what file is dupe and could be deleted

(insert who knows which) folder in Winsxs they won't be able to boot.

vista still boot after delete those dupe file i checked it in my vmware

And that hotfixes might fail to install after tampering with Winsxs doubles.

i guess its wont be that problam cuz its dupe files that vista already installed like WMP....

Oh even and Control Panel - Features. Try it

i try to add telnet client i got error that not all of the feathers success to installed but telnet.exe is there

is more like sfc bypasser option

Edited December 13, 2007 by aviv00

[nuhi]

If you tell people remove only double they will go: "and why would I keep this other gigabyte or so, lets try deleting all". Just a warning would be appropriate.

Same as cpanel failed some hotfixes will as well, I've been testing this long time ago. Thing is if you want to tamper with Winsxs say goodbye to hotfixes and component install.

I can't tell you how much I want that folder cleaned as well, working on it for later.

Also if you reinstall often then who cares that hotfixes don't work, just integrate and reinstall when there are enough of them to justify that action.

Or in case of SP1 reinstall on new version, hotfixes are not needed for now. I will be removing the whole (at least 95%) of winsxs in my next install. Why stop on double if it is already broken

[aviv00]

OK i add that warning

Please Notice that WinSxS have system files and must NOT Fully removed

and low possibly that hotfix wont work [ gonna check it for sure soon ]

the about the feathers and hotfix really doubt that its will crash

its might be only if this hotfix is connect to same component that need a fix

mostly they are used to internal system fixing

and again those files are dupe so they already been installed on the system [Components]

not important files

Edited December 13, 2007 by aviv00

[Arneh]

Perhaps you could include that option nuhi as an Alpha (Experimental) option with newer builds of vLite for folks that really want to slim things down and don't really care about the Hotfix/Component install issues or would they rather have to go back the v. old build of vLite that still included that option (after removing stuff with a newer vLite) to be able to use that option?

Edited December 13, 2007 by Arneh

[aviv00]

that is good idea

and even its not going well it could be fix easily

just copy back the files from the target [ofc with vlite or bat file ?]

Edited December 13, 2007 by aviv00

[nuhi]

Arneh, it will sound too convenient but it's already planned that way, hidden with the -extreme switch, available in the next version.

[Arneh]

Arneh, it will sound too convenient but it's already planned that way, hidden with the -extreme switch, available in the next version.

[Arneh]

By the way, there is a newer build out today (only for Server 2008 64-Bit because it includes the new Hyper-V bits) but nevertheless it seems to be much newer than RC1.

6001.17119: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

[nuhi]

Arneh, good, it's moving.

If at least they give slipstreamed Vista SP1 ISO this way...but anyway I'm ok with it now, capturing in virtual machine is painless.

I guess MS and video will bring down the pipes

[aviv00]

nuhi could u add in the new vlite option to enable administrator account

is might pass the user creation while installation

and btw i didnt understand nothing

Edited December 14, 2007 by aviv00

[seeker3]

So,has anyone figured out if this is a safe way to clean the WinSxS folder yet? Or is there another way? I'm running Vista Home Basic SP1,and would sure like to reduce the size of that folder.It's 4.6 gigs right now,compared to XP SP3 at 19.5 megs.I see a couple of posters saying they were working on it,but the last post was Dec 13,07 and it's now March 25,08.Also can this be done on installed system,or only vlite?I hope somebody has figured out a way,because going from less than 20 megs on XP to almost 5 gigs on Vista is bloody ridiculous! Any hope? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.Thanks.

[aviv00]

better use vlite but still its have alot of things u need of know

update wont work and hotfix wont install

add/remove feathers will die too

if u remove comps with vlite the winsxs files will remove too and still save all the functionally i said before

use 7zip or gimagex so u could see the winsxs size before & after and see if u like it

GL

Edited March 25, 2008 by aviv00