What is in the winsxs folder windows 10. For modern OS

Windows 10 has a new feature that allows you to reduce the disk space occupied by the system. New Feature called Compact OS and is an evolutionary development of the WIMBoot technology introduced in Windows 8.1 Update 1. Compact OS allows you to reduce the disk space occupied by the system through compression system files(similar to compressing a wim file in WIMBoot). Not only system files are compressed, but also files standard Windows– applications.

Compact OS saves order 1.5 GB disk capacity at 32-bit and around 2.6 GB on 64-bit Windows 10. The technology is intended primarily for owners of tablets, smartphones and laptops with SSD drives small capacity.

After compression is performed, system files are decompressed in random access memory on the fly, completely transparent to the system and applications. According to Microsoft, the Compact OS feature allows you to save disk space without a big drop in system performance.

Compact OS can be activated both during installation of the system and during its operation. According to the Microsoft documentation, the system itself determines whether to enable Compact OS compression or not, depending on the characteristics of the system (RAM size, processor performance, and "other important factors"). Compact OS should automatically be used on systems with SSD drives small size(128 GB or less).

You need to understand saving disk space that due to the use of file compression, it comes at the expense of system performance, because. have to spend additional resources processor and RAM to decompress compressed files.

Let's take a look at Compact OS technology in action. So, we see that there were 27.8 GB free on the C: drive before the compression was performed.

To find out if Compact OS is using system file compression, from a command prompt running with administrator rights, run:

compact /compactos:query

If the utility determines that the current machine will not benefit much from using Compact OS mode, the command will output:

The system file compression mode can also be enabled manually, regardless of the opinion of the system:

Compressing OS binaries

35410 files within 16764 directories were compressed.

5,309,734,985 total bytes of data are stored in 3,151,094,323 bytes.

The compression ratio is 1.7 to 1.

Compression takes some time, about 10-20 minutes. After the compression is completed, the compression ratio will be indicated (1.7 times) and how much the system files were compressed (in our case, 5.3 GB is compressed to 3.1)

Thus, on system drive an additional 2.1 GB of free space became available.

At first glance, there are no problems with a drop in system performance.

The Compact OS mode is disabled with the command:

compact /CompactOs:never

It is also worth mentioning that the DISM utility in Windows 10 has received a new argument that allows you to deploy an OS with Compact OS mode enabled:

dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:install.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:C:\ /compact

Windows 10 takes up less space than previous versions operating system. If you have a tablet or laptop with a small drive, every byte counts. In this article, we will analyze 3 options for how to make Windows 10 take up as little space as possible.

A clean freshly installed Windows 10 takes up about 15 GB disk space. Basically it is system files and files backups, but there are also default programs, games. Of course, this may not seem like much, but if you have a cheap Windows laptop with 32 GB or even 64 GB, it turns out that most of the memory is taken up by the operating system. You can reduce the size taken by Windows by removing default applications, disable hibernation, adjust the volume used virtual memory.

How to remove default apps in Windows 10

Each default application individually takes up little space, but since there are so many of them, the sum is quite impressive in size, and they also clutter the Start menu. Remove the ones you don't need

1. Open the "Start" menu item "Settings"

2. Select "System"

3. Select "Storage" and then in the panel on the right, select the drive with:

4. Select "Apps and games"

5. Select the application and click the "Delete" button to remove the application

Some apps, such as Groove Music and Xbox, Mail and Calendar, and Maps cannot be removed. To remove them, use the PowerShell commands.

Disable sleep mode

When your computer goes to sleep, Windows saves a copy current state computer ( open documents and programs) HDD. If you do not use hibernation, disable it and delete the hiberfil.sys file, which takes up several gigabytes of disk space.

1. Disable command line in administrator mode, click right click mouse on the start menu and select "Command Prompt (Admin)".

2. Click the "Yes" button if the User Account Control asks whether to allow opening the command line

3. In the command line that opens, type the command and press Enter

This command removes the hiberfil.sys file from your computer and disables the hibernation feature. You will still be able to put your computer to sleep, which will save your computer's state to RAM instead of memory hard drive.

Change the size of virtual memory in Windows 10

If you do not have enough RAM to run or execute Windows applications will itself automatically transfer part of the data from RAM to the paging file on the hard drive. You yourself determine how much space to allocate for the paging file on your hard drive.

1. Open the Control Panel. You can do this either by using the search function on the taskbar or the start menu.

2. Select "System and Security"

3. Select the menu item "System"

4. Click on the menu item " Extra options systems"

5. Click the Advanced tab and click the Options button under Performance

6. Go to the "Advanced" tab and click "Change ..." in the "Virtual Memory" section.

7. Uncheck the box "Automatically choose the size of the paging file."

8. Select "Specify size" and set the maximum and minimum size of the paging file. Click "Set" and "OK"

Of course, you can set the size of the swap file to the choice of the system or disable it, but then you must remember that disabling the swap file will completely negatively affect the operation of the operating system. By setting the size of the paging file to the choice of the system, you will not be able to control the size of the file itself. Which will eventually lead to an uncontrolled increase in its size and, again, will negatively affect the performance of the system.

Using our tips, you will free up several gigabytes of hard drive space.

The "WinSxS" folder is located in the "Windows" system folder located on the computer's system drive. Some users have a question: what is this WinSxS folder? This is service folder- storage system components necessary for the normal functioning of the operating Windows systems.

The WinSxS folder stores backup copies of operating system components previously installed on the computer, files and other information necessary for system recovery.

Many users are wondering: is it possible to delete the "WinSxS" folder from the computer? Users find that the WinSxS folder takes up a lot of space on the PC's hard drive, so it should be deleted or completely cleared to save space.

The WinSxS folder is located along the path: "C:\Windows\WinSxS" on the disk with the installed operating system.

Thanks to the WinSxS folder, it is possible to return the system to previous state to old version updates. In Windows 10, the WinSxS folder stores the data necessary to reset the system to initial settings Windows operating system. Therefore, it is not recommended to delete the WinSxS folder from the computer manually or using programs.

If the WinSxS folder is deleted on the computer, or the necessary files, possible malfunctions or malfunctions of the operating system, failure during Windows boot. It will be impossible to execute due to the lack of necessary files.

In order to look at the size of the WinSxS folder, you should enter Windows folder, and then right-click on the WinSxS folder. AT context menu select "Properties", in the "Properties: WinSxS" window that opens, in the "General" tab, information will be displayed on how much disk space is occupied by files in the WinSxS folder.

Please note that the folder size in Explorer does not take into account the fact that most of the files in the WinSxS folder are "hard links", and the files themselves are located in other directories of the operating system. Therefore, the true size of the WinSxS folder is smaller than what Explorer or another shows file manager because they sum the size of the files from two places.

Due to the fact that the operating system is constantly updated, old versions of updated system files accumulate in the WinSxS folder, so the folder size increases.

If the WinSxS folder takes up a lot of hard disk space, then clearing the WinSxS folder from junk files will free up some disk space from the data. To do this, you need to use the built-in tools of the Windows operating system.

How to shrink the WinSxS folder? To clean up the WinSxS folder, use system tools:

• Disk Cleanup utility (cleanmgr.exe).
• Commands executed from the command line.
• DISM.exe utility.
• Task Scheduler.

In this article, we will look at instructions on how to clean up the WinSxS folder in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 operating systems.

Cleaning up the WinSxS folder in Windows 10

In Windows 10, the WinSxS folder stores not only backups of system components and updates, but also other important operating system data, so it is not recommended to empty the folder unless absolutely necessary. This method can be used on Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 operating systems.

Run command prompt as administrator. Read about how to do this in Windows 10.

In the command line interpreter window, type the command that analyzes the system component store, and after entering the command, press "Enter":

Dism /online /cleanup-image /AnalyzeComponentStore

After the analysis is completed, the command line window will display information about the state of the storage: files compatible with Windows and files that can be deleted (backups and disabled components, cache and temporary data) from the operating system.

To run a WinSxS cleanup on Windows 10, enter the command:

Dism /online /cleanup-image /StartComponentCleanup

Run this command with additional key"/ResetBase" removes outdated versions components:

Dism /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

After successful completion of the operation, restart your computer.

How to clean up the WinSxS folder in Windows using the Disk Cleanup utility (cleanmgr.exe)

Cleaning up the WinSxS folder in Windows is done using system utility Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe). This method works on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 operating systems.

If your computer is under Windows control 7, in the Disk Cleanup utility there is no item to clean up updates, install optional update"KB2852386" which adds this item to the system application.

Run the Disk Cleanup utility, follow these steps:

1. Press "Win" + "R" on your keyboard.
2. In the "Run" window, enter the command: "cleanmgr" (without quotes), click "OK".
3. Select a drive to clean up. By default, the system drive is selected.
4. In the "Disk Cleanup (C:)" window that opens, click on the "Clean up system files" button.

1. Select the drive to clean up again.
2. In the "Disk Cleanup (C:)" window, check the boxes next to the items "Clean up Windows updates”, click on the “OK” button.

1. In the warning window, agree to delete the files.
2. Wait for the data deletion process to finish, and when the Windows WinSxS folder cleanup is complete, restart your computer.

This will slightly reduce the size of the WinSxS folder on the computer disk.

Cleaning up the WinSxS folder in Windows 8.1

In Windows 8.1 (Windows 8), the WinSxS folder can be cleared using the Task Scheduler. This method also works on the Windows 10 operating system.

To clean up the WinSxS folder, do the following:

1. Start the Task Scheduler in one of the ways.
2. In the left column, open the "Task Scheduler Library", and then alternately go first to the "Microsoft" section, and then to the "Windows" section.
3. Click on the "Servicing" section, the "StartComponentCleanup" component, which is responsible for cleaning up the component store, is ready to perform the task.
4. In the right column, under Selected Item, click Run.

Wait for the removal of unnecessary files from system folder, and then restart your PC.

For auto start tasks to clean up the WinSxS folder, do the following:

1. In the "StartComponentCleanup" component window, in the right column, in the "Selected Element" section, click on "Properties".
2. In the "StartComponentCleanup" window ( local computer)" open the "Triggers" tab, click the "Create" button.
3. In the "Create a trigger" window, set up a schedule to automatically run the task at the desired frequency at a specific time.

How to clean up the WinSxS folder in Windows 7

In Windows 7, you can delete unnecessary data from the WinSxS folder by running a command on the command line.

1. Run command prompt as administrator.
2. In the command line interpreter window, enter the command, and then press the "Enter" key:

Article Conclusions

The WinSxS system folder is used to store components of the Windows operating system. If necessary, the user can clear the WinSxS folder from unnecessary files using system tools: the Disk Cleanup utility, DISM utility, the Task Scheduler application, by running commands on the command line.

Hello! This article will be a continuation of the epic about the wonderful free program AOMEI Partition assistant. If you have not read ours about it yet, then it's time to do it by clicking on the link provided. You can also download it there.

Now we will consider the question of how change disk size in windows 10 without data loss. Only this time we will do it in the direction of decreasing. Although according to by and large there is no difference.

After all, once you understand the essence of the issue, you can, for example, without much difficulty not only reduce, but also increase the disk "C" due to the disk « D « or vice versa. In general, the main thing is to delve into the process and everything will work out.

Specifically, in our case, about the system hard section there will be no speech disk, because the link above this issue is disclosed in in full. Now the task is set as follows.

Reduce the size of logical partitions « D « and « E « to transfer the freed space to disk « F « . That is, we take from one and give to another. Listen, almost like barbarians:

Well, despite the abundance and confusion between the letters of the sections, this is done elementarily. See for yourself. First we cut free place from disk « D « . To do this, in the main window of the program, right-click on it and select the item "Resize partition":

Then the slider, which can be moved left to right, set new size. In the "Unallocated space" column, you can see the amount of the hard drive being freed:

With a section under the letter « E « do the same and click "Apply" in the left upper corner AOMEI programs Partition Assistant:

At the end, a message will appear asking you to double-check the new sizes of the disks you are changing. If you agree, confidently press "Go":

Sometimes there are cases when editable sections are used by the system. As a result, no action can be taken on them. But this is not a problem, we give the command to restart the computer and things will go like clockwork:

And here's your confirmation:

If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments. Or suddenly there is something to add on the topic, write there. Already in we will bring the work we have begun to the end, we will add the freed space to the logical partition « F « . In the meantime, let's watch an interesting video.

If you are confused by the fact that the WinSxS folder weighs a lot and are interested in the question of whether its contents can be deleted, this instruction will describe in detail the process of cleaning this folder in Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7, and at the same time I will tell you what kind of folder it is and what is it for and is it possible to remove WinSxS completely.

The WinSxS folder stores backup copies of the system files of the operating system before updates (and not only, more on that later). That is, whenever you receive and install Windows updates, information about changeable files, these files themselves so that you have the opportunity to remove the update and roll back the changes made.

After some time, the WinSxS folder can take up quite a lot of hard disk space - several gigabytes, while this size is constantly increasing as new Windows updates are installed. Fortunately, clearing the contents of this folder is relatively easy regular means. And if the computer after latest updates works without any problems, this action is relatively safe.

Also in Windows 10, the WinSxS folder is used, for example, for reset Windows 10 in the initial state- i.e. the files necessary for automatic reinstallation are taken from it.

Before I talk about cleaning up the WinSxS Component Store folder, I want to warn you about some important things: don't try to delete this folder.

In Windows 10, the WinSxS folder stores not only the files associated with updates, but also the files of the system itself, which are used during operation, as well as in order to restore the OS to its original state or perform some recovery-related operations. So: I do not recommend any amateur performance when cleaning and reducing the size of this folder. The following steps are safe for the system and allow you to clear the WinSxS folder in Windows 10 only from unnecessary backups created during system updates.

Run a command prompt as an administrator (for example, through the right click on the Start button)

Enter command Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /AnalyzeComponentStore and press Enter. The Component Store folder will be analyzed and you will see a message to clean it up.

Enter command Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /StartComponentCleanup and press Enter to start automatic cleanup of the WinSxS folder.

One important point: this command should not be abused. In some cases, when there are no Windows 10 update backups in the WinSxS folder, after performing a cleanup, the folder may even grow slightly. Those. it makes sense to clean up when the specified folder has grown too much, in your opinion (5-7 GB is not too much).

How to clean up the WinSxS folder in Windows 7

To clean up WinSxS in Windows 7 SP1, you must first install the optional update KB2852386, which adds the appropriate item to the Disk Cleanup utility.

Here's how to do it:

Go to Windows 7 Update - this can be done through the control panel or use the search in the start menu.

Click "Search for updates" in the menu on the left and wait. After that, click on optional updates.

Find and mark the optional update KB2852386 and install it.

Restart your computer.

After that, in order to delete the contents of the WinSxS folder, run the Disk Cleanup utility (also, the easiest way is to use the search), click the "Clean up system files" button and select "Windows Update Cleanup" or "Service Pack Backup Files".

Removing WinSxS content in Windows 8 and 8.1

AT latest versions OS Windows opportunity delete update backups is available in the default Disk Cleanup utility. That is, in order to delete files in WinSxS, you should do the following:

In addition, in Windows 8.1 there is another way to clear this folder:

1. Run command prompt as administrator (to do this, press the Win + X keys on your keyboard and select desired item menu).
2. Enter command dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

Also, using dism.exe, you can find out exactly how much the WinSxS folder takes in Windows 8, for this, use the following command:

Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

Automatic cleanup of update backups in WinSxS

In addition to clearing the contents of this folder manually, you can use the scheduler Windows tasks so that it happens automatically.

To do this, you need to create a simple StartComponentCleanup task in Microsoft\Windows\Servicing with the desired frequency of execution.

I hope the article will be useful and warn against unwanted actions. If you have any questions - ask, I will try to answer.