How to Delete winsxs Folder in Vista

[Chandranath]

Hello , I Have Windows Vista and i am operating on Very low Disk Space , i found these Winsxs Folder in my C Drive , when i check it properties It is large in size. It is taking too much space from c: drive. And I don’t know what the working of this folder is? So I Would like to know whether incase if they are not useful Hoe can I delete that Folder manually or would be needed any tool to delete those files and Folder.

[Humberto]

Please Do not Attempt to Delete that Directory as it a windows Directly Useful for the Functionining of Windows Vista

Read this From Msdn Blog

In Windows Vista, the directory %windir%\WinSxS has much stronger protection on it than it did in Windows XP and Server 2003. The owner/group is now a SID named "Trusted Installer", a service SID used to start the TrustedInstaller service. Users other than the trusted installer are granted only generic-read/generic-execute by default. This increased protection ensures that only the trusted installer service is allowed to modify the servicing-related metadata and files. If a limited user could modify a file in the directory, for example, they could convince the servicing stack to overwrite one binary with another when the next administrator comes along to enable the Games for Windows package.

Content is added to this directory in response to installing applications, enabling packages in the add-remove-programs UI, and installing Windows Out-of-Band releases. Content is removed from this directory as a result of uninstall + scavenging - a topic for another time. One important note - uninstalling your application or Windows app will not necessarily remove the physical bits from the system. The servicing stack marks the bits as unusable and prevents their use through "normal" means. Files and directories will be removed over time as the servicing system cleans up after itself. Administrators should not, for any reason, take it upon themselves to clean out the directory - doing so may prevent Windows Update and MSI from functioning properly afterwards. Preventing accidental deletion from the directory is accomplished by putting a strong security descriptor on the directory that inherits to its children.

Source

[jesse]

Yup it is True that With windows Vista, the System Saved the old components "dll" in the WinSxS folder. Check Here for more information What is winsxs Folder in windows vista ,

[MrChris-]

Sorry you Cannot delete that Folder instead Use a Disk Cleanup in Vista to get more space

1. Open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Start button , clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking System Tools, and then clicking Disk Cleanup.

2. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, choose whether you want to clean up your own files only or all of the files on the computer. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3. If the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box appears, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.
4. Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then select the check boxes for the files you want to delete.

5. When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click OK, and then click Delete files to confirm the operation. Disk Cleanup proceeds to remove all unnecessary files from your computer.