dark side of SxS

[vinifera]

this will sound so hilarious and stupid

but in last 4 weeks, YES 1 full month, i have been screwing around with win7 sp1 installation

doing various experiments, and all I see how i wasted 1 month of life on microslops idiotism

 

oh holy spirits i hate them so much...

 

but let this topic be about notorious winsxs folder, which is retarded beyond retarded

 

its main function was to "resolve dll hell", so when each app gets compiled under different

visual studio or ex visual basic, the folder would aggregate same DLL but only if it has small change

something like VCpp 2010 rtm, then sp1, then patch for sp1, then patch for patch lol

or even if you look at VB 6, it had 6 service packs...

 

BUT when I saw that this shit folder contains 3-4 same SYSTEM files

ok, read again, SYSTEM files, not files that came with program, but SYSTEM files

just different build number, i had to ask myself WHY, isn't it enough to have it in \System32 folder locked ?

why the F'ck have it tripled or quadrupled into SxS for no freaking reason, and this is just 32bit version

who knows what x64 has ...

 

so yeah I did next logical step, I extracted from install WIM whole dammned SxS

and compared its files with those in System32, what would one call duplicate files

and just for safety I left ones with highest build number/newer date

tho i was tempted to nuke them all since they already are in System32 folder,

 

and voila upon repack stupid OS didn't wan't to load some dll's even if they were there

 

thank you MS for fuck up

i bet even those idiots don't know what they did there

[jaclaz]

Yep .

Though not really-really news , issues with SXS are re-known since day one or so (example):

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rchiodo/archive/2007/04/09/the-next-level-of-dll-hell-sxs.aspx

 

 

BUT, JFYI, be aware that many of these files are hard links (ans more can be made as such):

http://reboot.pro/topic/19643-winsxs-hardlinked-files/

 

(and as a side bonus, the reason why you cannot - normally - install 7 to a FAT32 volume )

 

jaclaz

[vinifera]

yeah i know

but i'm not talking about hard links nor backup folder

 

these are duplicates of sys files for no reason, at least to me no reason

i mean, why the hell would you have 3 of same system files, when 1 is secured in system32 folder

what are they there, for the lulz ?

they are not managed files (.net), so what the heck ?

[Guest]

The WinSxS folder can be cleaned up by Windows after installing KB2852386:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/askpfeplat/archive/2013/10/07/breaking-news-reduce-the-size-of-the-winsxs-directory-and-free-up-disk-space-with-a-new-update-for-windows-7-sp1-clients.aspx

Edited September 30, 2015 by 5eraph

[cdob]

its main function was to "resolve dll hell", so when each app gets compiled under different visual studio or ex visual basic, the folder would aggregate same DLL but only if it has small change something like VCpp 2010 rtm, then sp1,

The hell is doubled nowadays: some programs adds msvcp*.dll to the program directory.

 

i had to ask myself WHY, isn't it enough to have it in \System32 folder locked ?

Version manifest refers to WinSxS directory https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb773175.aspx

There can be different comctl32.dll file versions at WinSxS.

Explorer.exe refers winsxs\amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0* comctl32.dll

<dependency>

<dependentAssembly>

<assemblyIdentity

type="win32"

name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls"

version="6.0.0.0"

processorArchitecture="*"

publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df"

language="*"

/>

</dependentAssembly>

</dependency>

these are duplicates of sys files for no reason, at least to me no reason

i mean, why the hell would you have 3 of same system files, when 1 is secured in system32 folder

Can you name a example?

[vinifera]

heres one

im just too lazy to do them all 1 by 1

 

 

[loblo]

Every system file has two hard links, one of which is in the sxs folder. If you manually replace a system file in the system dirs, you'll have two different  files instead of two hard links for that file. If you run repair/sfc, Windows will restore the original in the sys dirs by recreating a hard link to the original in sxs.

 

In fact, if I am not mistaken, Windows 7 is installed from the sxs folder in the second phase of install, first everything is copied from the install media to the sxs folder and then every file is projected (official terminology) as hard link to its location in the relevant system folder.

 

And when you install official updates, again correct me if  i am wrong, files are first copied to sxs and then projected to their locations in the system dirs as hard links, eg, delete hard link to original file and then create hard link to new one, so that the sxs folder is both an install and backup folder.

Edited October 8, 2015 by loblo

[vinifera]

nope

install.wim has all files in sys32 and winsxs

you can actually even after install compare if you modify sys32 file and sxs not

sxs stays "original"

 

but picking through sxs seems impossible

cleaning that crap is waste of time

[cdob]

basebrd.dll is a good catch. Yes, this is not hardlinked so far.

hardlink this file.

And other, not hardlinked files too.

The previous mentioned approach shrinks about ten percent.

[vinifera]

it sucks when i see install.wim containing in sxs resources for all sku's

[cdob]

It's called anytime upgrade: the files are at hard disk already.

Compare dism.exe /Get-TargetEditions

Yes, you may disagree with the manufacturer.

[vinifera]

ah to hell with their upgrade

they made mess out of it