Space-Voluminous Vista: SoftwareDistribution, winsxs

[PeaceByJesus]

Hi all. Have been running Vista basic for about a year on a 39gb partition which increasingly keeps on getting smaller. I now have only approx. 7gb left. I actually resized it once but never thought i would need a 50gb partition as it looks like i may. I only really use it for Windows and Program files (not multimedia or documents) and empty Temp and recycle folders as needed, but Vista keeps growing. Today i found a neat freeware app, Drive Spacio (http://www.drivespacio.f-sw.com), and i find 2 folders in the Windows dir that are rather large. The 2 main folders are SoftwareDistribution and winsxs which are over 3gb ea., and have funky folder and files names like msil_accessibility_b03f5f7f11d50a3a_6.0.6001.18000_none_4daadb2992fccae3, or 849e9b1219110b6a8fe90f980141bb16.

I see you have a guide on the winsxs folder, http://www.msfn.org/board/Guide-WinSxS-Dup...el-t109131.html, but i think i should just leave it alone. But what about SoftwareDistribution? The real space eater folder is called Download, and i do not even download to this drive. I cannot tell what they are (perhaps Win updates?) by the names. Thanks.

Edited May 23, 2008 by PeaceByJesus