Windows 7 How do I cleanup winsxs folder to free up space on SSD drives

[Erie]

After spending an entire afternoon trying to find a way to empty the file WinSxS which is eating as much as 10GB on my partition on external drive. I wonder if any of you has already managed to clean this folder and the same could help me a lot. I think it is not possible to deduce the files that are bound to the system log using that result. I am using Windows 7 and does there is a better way for that.

[DanielV]

Winsxs is a very important folder in Windows. I will recommend you not to touch the same. During execution, the DLLs are loaded in the main process and the code required is also executed at the same time. The application is based on the operating system to locate DLL requested, determine the other dependent DLLs to be loaded and load the DLL with requested. So that makes this folder very important or else you can face system errors.

[mesterio]

On versions of Windows operating system Prior to Windows XP and Windows 2003 the dependent DLLs lies in the local folder for the application or other file specified in the system path. The WinSxS folder contains all the files necessary for these applications side by side. It is recommend not to touch the same and if you remove the same then it might prevent some application from not working. You can if want format your external drive.

[Deep123]

On my system there is less than 7300 files needed to function properly. I found 4985 errors so they are not used. In these files there are only 2197 which required a correction to ensure stability. You can run a scan for searching duplicate files and folder. This might give you some help in clearing the folder and emptying space on the same. Run the same and then check back.

[Ernesto4]

I am using Windows Vista. The folder WinSxs stores the old components which belongs to dll files and there are some files which are depend on this. There are newer version of the same provided in new operating system. But remember one thing cleaning that might affect some of the applications in your system.

[Enriqueta]

It is has been introduced in Win XP and used to contain different versions of system files mostly DLL to allow certain programs to operate, it prevents when installing a program it replaces the original DLL. This file is linked to the System32 folder in its use. VISTA Microsoft developed the concept of having multiple versions of a file to avoid conflicts by putting such resources. The low volume folder in XP can be imposed on Vista by number of programs and therefore DLL that is installed, mine weighs 4.6 GB.

[Enriquee]

Like everyone I see and I am worried about the increase the winsxs directory and now the same is reached to 14GB. I just noticed that even after uninstalling the program there is not change in the size of Winsxs folder. There are some applications dependent on this and it is recommended that you must wipe this out very safely and securely. There is a tool called Nlite which is used for the same.