Hi I have a number of machines with a bloated WindowsSoftwareDistribution folder. I usually address this by Stopping the Automatic Updates service. This topic is about the different ways to reduce the size of the WinSxS folder on a running version of Windows 10. One commonly asked question is, Can I delete the. Windows 10 has a feature built into the Disk Cleanup tool called Clean Up System Files that not many people take full advantage of. This feature is designed to help. The Easiest Way to Clean Install Windows 1. Up till now, if you wanted to start fresh with your Windows 1. PC, you had one of two options reset your PC or download the Windows 1. ISO and reinstall the operating system manually. In a previous post, I wrote about how you can restore Windows to factory settings, but this really only resets your Windows 1. PC. Resetting a Windows 1. PC is not the same thing as performing a clean install. If you have an OEM machine, a clean install will usually still include all the extra software installed by default by the OEM. This is not an ideal scenario. You can download the Windows 1. ISO easily, but manually performing a clean install is still quite a technical task requiring you to change the boot order on your computer, format the drive properly, etc. Thankfully, in the Windows 1. Anniversary Update recently released, there is now an option to perform a true clean install without having to worry about the technical details. In this article, Ill show you how to perform this procedure, which in my tests, only takes about 3. Before Performing a Clean Install. Before you perform a clean install, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind. Firstly, you will have the option to keep your personal files, in case you dont want to delete those. Thats really about the only option you have when performing the clean install. Secondly, when performing a clean install using this new tool, you will not have the ability to change the size of the partitions on your hard drive. This page contains instructions on how to remove Windows PC Repair popup ads from Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge. Most of you may have noticed the WinSxS folder in Windows 7810 and been surprised at its size. For those who have not, the folder is situated at CWindowsWinsxs. FZJF_08rjk.jpg' alt='Clean Up The Windows Folder Size' title='Clean Up The Windows Folder Size' />If you need to re partition the drive, youll need to use the old fashion method of manually performing a clean install. During the procedure, Windows will not touch any other partition on the hard drive, so if you have data on those partitions, you wont lose any of that data even if you choose the option to delete everything. Thirdly, you need to make sure that you have installed the Windows 1. Anniversary Update. If its not installing through Windows Update on its own, you can download the Anniversary Update here manually. Clean Install Windows 1. Like I said earlier, with this new tool, the process is very straight forward and doesnt take much time at all. To get started, click on Start, then the Settings, then Update Security and then Recovery. At the very bottom, youll see a link called Learn how to start fresh with a clean installation of Windows under the More recovery options heading. Click on that link and youll be brought to a Start Fresh page on Microsofts website. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the Download Tool Now button. This should download to your Downloads folder automatically. Go ahead and double click on the Refresh. Windows. Tool file. A dialog window will appear explaining what the tool will do and giving you the option to delete everything or keep personal files. Click the Start button and the first step of the clean install will begin. The first step is for the tool to download the latest version of Windows 1. This will be about 3 GB in size, so it could take a while if you have a slower Internet connection. Unfortunately, there is no way to choose a local image file at this time. Next, the tool will create the Windows media required to perform the clean install. Finally, it will download any of the latest updates and add those to the media too. Once that is complete, Windows will restart and youll see the Installing Windows message on the screen. This stage takes the longest and once complete, youll see the start of the initial setup screens. I wont go into much detail here because most of it is self explanatory, but I will mention the next screen because it is very important for privacy. Ive written a guide on making Windows 1. Windows is installed. Youll be tempted to click on Use Express Settings, but dont. Click on Customize and turn off everything on the next three screens about 1. If you end up needing one of those features, it can easily be turned on at a later point. Thats about it. Youll now be able to log into your freshly installed copy of Windows 1. This is also a great way to do it because you dont have to worry about activating Windows again or anything like that. Overall, this is the easiest and fastest option for performing a true clean install of Windows 1. How to clean up system files with the Windows 1. Disk Cleanup tool. Image i. Stockphoto. Windows 1. 0 has a feature built into the Disk Cleanup tool called Clean Up System Files that not many people take full advantage of. This feature is designed to help you regain valuable hard disk space by removing system files that are no longer necessary to the functioning of the operating systemold installation files, Windows Update leftovers, and outdated device drivers, just to name a few. In this article, Ill take a closer look at the Disk Cleanup tool and then focus in on the Clean Up System Files feature. As I do, Ill give you a little background on the types of files that this tool is designed to remove from your hard disk. Note Before you attempt any of the steps shown in this article, I recommend that you restart your system to ensure that any pending Windows Update operations are complete and to ensure you are beginning with a clean slate. The Win. Sx. S folder. If you used the Windows operating system back in the Windows 9. DLL Hell. This situation arose when you installed different programs that included updated versions of DLL Dynamic Link Library files with the same name as files already on the system. These duplicate files would wreak havoc with applications and the operating system. For example, an application would look for a specific version of a DLL file, but find a newer version that was recently updated by another program. Since the version was different, the application would act strangely or crash altogether. By the time Windows Vista was introduced, Microsoft had solved the problem by creating a new technology called componentization, which uses a folder called Win. Sx. S, which allows the operating system to store and keep track of all kinds of operating system files, DLLs included, with the same name but different versions. Win. Sx. S is short for Windows Side by Side and refers to using files with the same name but with different version numbers at the same time in the operating system. As things evolved, the Win. Sx. S folder also became the perfect place to store files added to the operating system by Windows Update. As you probably know from firsthand experience, Microsoft releases a multitude of updates every month to keep up with bugs, new applications, and security problems, just to name a few of the reasons for regular updates. To make sure that the updates dont cause compatibility problems, all kinds of duplicate files get stored in the Win. Sx. S folder so that everything can continue to function correctly. Furthermore, many Windows updates are designed such that if they do cause unanticipated compatibility problems, they can be uninstalled and the files can be reverted to a previous state. While this is a pretty simplified description of the Win. Sx. S folder, the general idea I want to convey here is that the Win. Sx. S folder can grow so large that it takes up a good chunk of hard disk space. The problem gets compounded by the fact that the Win. Sx. S folder is used to store so many files. This means that old files as well as files that are no longer necessary can still be taking up hard disk space. For instance, Figure A shows the Win. Sx. S folder properties dialog on a system that began as a Windows 7 system, which was upgraded to Windows 8. Windows 1. 0. As you can see, the Win. Sx. S folder on this system contains 6. GB of hard disk space. Figure AThe Win. Sx. S folder can be quite large. If you want more technical details about the origin of componentization and the Win. Sx. S folder, you can view this 2. Ask the Core Team blog on the Microsoft Tech. Net site. The Disk Cleanup tool. The Disk Cleanup tool has been around for quite some time. Its job is to make it easy to clean out old and unnecessary files that can clog up your hard disk. Its the perfect place for the Clean Up System Files feature to live, since its designed to weed through the Win. Sx. S folder and eliminate waste. Rather than just jumping straight into the Clean up system files feature, lets look at the Disk Cleanup tool as a whole and then delve into the how the feature works. To easily run the Disk Cleanup tool, launch File Explorer, select This PC, and select Local Disk C. To continue, select the Drive Tools Manage tab and click the Cleanup button, as shown in Figure B. Figure BYou can launch Disk Cleanup from within File Explorer. Once you launch Disk Cleanup, it will begin to analyze the files on your hard disk to determine what can be safely removed, as shown in Figure C. Figure CThe Disk Cleanup tool will scan your hard disk and locate files that can be removed to free up space. Once the disk space analysis is complete, youll see the main Disk Cleanup interface Figure D, which essentially lists the categories or locations containing unnecessary files on your hard disk that can be removed. Adjacent to each category youll see the size of the unnecessary files as well as a check box that allows you to specify that you want to remove those files. Figure DThe main feature of the Disk Cleanup interface is the Files to delete scrolling list. Beneath the list is a number indicating the total amount of disk space youll gain by removing the selected files. And below that is the description panel, which offers more details about the selected category. The categories in the list will depend on what the Disk Cleanup tool found on your hard disk. Table A shows some of the most common categories you will find in Disk Cleanup, along with the descriptions provided. Table AMost common categories listed in the Disk Cleanup tool. As you select the various categories in the list, a View Files button may appear. If it does, you can click it to launch a separate File Explorer window that will show the unnecessary files stored in that location. Keep in mind that the View Files button is not available for all of the categories. The Clean Up System Files feature. If you refer back to Figure C, youll see the Clean Up System Files button next to the View Files button. Note This button is flagged with the UAC User Account Control icon. Depending on your UAC setting you may see a UAC prompt when you select that button. When you click the Clean Up System Files button, Disk Cleanup will display a screen similar to the one shown in Figure B as it analyzes additional locations on your hard disk to determine what can be safely removed. When the main Disk Cleanup interface returns, youll see several additional categories. Table B shows some of the most common categories in Disk Cleanups Files To Delete list after you click the Clean Up System Files button. Table BCategories that appear in Disk Cleanup when you select the Clean Up system files button. Running Disk Cleanup. When you select some or all of the various categories, take note of them and the value in the Total Amount Of Disk Space You Gain row. On my example system, I selected all the categories, and Disk Cleanup reported that I would gain 2. GB of disk space. When youre ready, click OK. Disk Cleanup will prompt you to confirm that you want to permanently delete the selected files, as shown in Figure E. Figure EDisk Cleanup will prompt you to confirm the permanent delete operation. When you click Delete Files, Disk Cleanup will go to work cleaning up all the files in the categories you selected, as shown in Figure F. Figure FDisk Cleanup will remove any unnecessary files. Crystal Reports Xi Pro Setup Serial Key. The end result. When Disk Cleanup is done, the dialog will just close.