Way to delete WinSxS files and folders on Win10 computer

Since you are asking, here is how you can do this...boot with a live 'nix distro.  I like Knoppix..

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

Now...just because you can do a thing, doesn't necessarily mean you SHOULD do a thing.

As stated above, there's a reason you can't mess with that folder easily.   YOU SHOULDN'T.  Fooling around with this folder will make you system unstable at best and un-usable at worst.

You asked, I answered.

What you should do is upgrade to a larger drive.

Yes . Larger drive is what I suggested above. 32GB is way too small for Windows 10

One more thing you can do is backup your data, create a new Windows 10 install disk and do a wipe and reinstall.

Put your apps and data back.  This will work in the short term, but you will be in the same boat later on.

I do lots of charity work and this is one of those. 32GB isn’t enough hard drive space.  If it were a laptop where I could get to the drive easily I'd upgrade it.  But this is a cheap take the whole thing apart model.  But then 32 GB would be enough to do basic work if Microsoft didn't fill up WinSxS and then make it so I can't clean it with disk clean. (It doesn’t find any system files to delete.) I have a backup so I’m going to try Koppix.

Koppix seems fairly complex.  Is there anything simpler that will just let me get in and delete the files?

You cannot delete the files in WinSXS. Not because they cannot be deleted, but because deleting those files may cause big problems for the OS when it goes to use the files in that folder

I’m not going to mess with the WinSxS folder. Lenovo should never have sold these machines with 32GB and Win10. I spoke with the customer.  It was booting to a black screen.  Now at least she can use it. But Windows will keep on trying and probably failing at putting in the Creator’s upgrade.  How much free space do you need to get that in? Maybe if I can successfully get it installed, disk cleanup with work.  I just ran disk cleanup on my computer and now the WinSxS folder is down to 6GB. Failing that and if the drive gets so full that Windows stops working entirely, I told her a larger hard drive would cost around $70. Question, if I can restore this back to an earlier time, does that replace the WinSxS folder with an earlier/smaller one?

WinSXS goes up and down with the current state of updates. Typically I see a big Windows 10 update swing disk usage by around 10 GB

So it is either a bigger disk or stand still and risk Windows 10 becoming insecure and completely out of date

"How much free space do you need to get that in?" - it depends on how much data is in the user profiles. Some PCs will need only 12 GBs of free space (that is the smallest number I have seen to ever upgrade), some will require 30 GBs (never seen more needed). I would calculate with at least 20 GBs of free space for upgrading to run flawlessly.

Just noticed this microsoft article on updating Windows using an external drive for temp space.

Right... although I had even seen that before, I totally forgot about it.

I'll tell you if it works.

Scott C. can you tell me where to get that current ISO?  
Thanks,
Al

Since the computer is running Windows 10, you can make a current ISO file from the Media Creation Link

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Created an ISO and when I installed it gave me the option to put the files on an external disk.  No other type of update gave that option.  Has Creative Update and 15GB free space.  That should work for a while.
Thanks to everyone.  You were a great help.
Alan

Thank you for the update.

Alan, your point division is weird. Please try to distribute them more fairly, next time.

Glad we could help.

McKnife,
Will do.  
Thanks again,
Alan