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The following may help with the winsxs folder issue:<br />
<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592038" rel="ugc nofollow">http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592038</a>
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My drive is only 74 GB unfortunately....I too have heard it shouldn't be altered, but It is taking up a lot of space now or at least a lot of space given my drive size.
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Honestly, these days that is probably too small for a Windows hard drive that will provide storage for both the operating system and the user data files.<br />
<br />
Is this a desktop? &nbsp;If so, you may want to consider installing an extra hard drive for user data file storage.
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As noted, the winsxs folder should not be deleted or altered. It levels out and definitely does not grow forever. My winsxs folder is 14Gb and it has been that size for a year or so. The windows installer folder is 7Gb and is doesn't change much either. This is the same 20Gb you have.<br />
<br />
So you really need to look elsewhere, but as Run5k has noted, 74Gb is not enough. If I exclude my virtual machines, my Windows 7 installation is about 100Gb. &nbsp;So you need at least a 200Gb hard drive for Windows 7 to run well over the long term. <br />
<br />
.... Thinkpads_User
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The WinSxS folder is the side-by-side assembly cache. &nbsp;90% of the files in there are a &quot;hardlink&quot; to a file in System32. &nbsp;So almost all the files in there are simply a second filename that points to the same disk space used by the files in System32.<br />
<br />
You can prove this by loading the Link Shell Extension - it will show most of the files in WinSXS with a red shortcut arrow. &nbsp;On the properties pane of the files will be a new tab &quot;Link Properties&quot; - you can see which System32 file it is linked to.<br />
<br />
Deleting any file that is a hardlink will not free any disk space.<br />
<br />
The bloating of Windows Installer is due to a decision by Microsoft that MSI files cached there no longer have the software installation files removed. &nbsp;This is so that uninstalls of signed packages wouldn't show an unsigned UAC prompt. &nbsp;Unfortunately they didn't create a group policy to keep the old behavior so that the disk space bloat does not happen.<br />
<br />
If you study up about symbolic links you can see they can be made to files off of the current machine. &nbsp;It would be possible to move those files to another volume, or even another machine, and create a symbolic link to them back into the \Windows\Installer folder - especially the big ones (over 200MB each).
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Hi,<br />
<br />
I'm on Windows 7<br />
<br />
I have these two folders under my C:\ , &nbsp;&quot;C:\windows\installer&quot; and &quot;C:\windows\winsxs&quot;. &nbsp; Right now they are taking up 20 gigs and my harddrive is running out of space. &nbsp;I have less than a gig left of disk space. &nbsp;<br />
<br />
How can I safely clean these folders up?<br />
<br />
Any help appreciated.<br />
<br />
Thanks....
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Hi,

I'm on Windows 7

I have these two folders under my C:\ ,  "C:\windows\installer" and "C:\windows\winsxs".   Right now they are taking up 20 gigs and my harddrive is running out of space.  I have less than a gig left of disk space.  

How can I safely clean these folders up?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks....

C:\Windows\Installer and C:\Windows\winsxs Folders Huge!

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