Blogs Winxs: Why my Vista install bloated to 28GB

XD that's good enough for a sig goodbytes

 

Isn't the MS Windows swap space (paging file?) by default on the same disk as where the OS is installed?

As a fellow GNU/Linux user, I disagree I'm all for shouting from the rooftops about how much I think GNU+Linux is better for me than Windows; but the hint's in the italic text. Not everyone cares about freedom, not every gamer wants to give up the games they paid good money for (Wine isn't magic and not everything will run in it).


As for the article/blog: 30GB is a bit big, though. Personally, I felt a bit "disappointed" when a full gNewSense install took up ~2.5GB (IIRC). My main computer (Debian) uses 1.73GB; with a full desktop environment it would be ~200-300MB more. (Making a comparison between GNU/Linux and MS Windows HD space is very silly, but I'm using this to explain my "feelings" below.)

I know storage is cheap (and I know that I am cheap when it comes to storage), but isn't there some kind of moral reasoning? It's not just because storage is cheap, that so much of it should be used for just running the PC.

Or am I (as is often the case) the only one who cares about this, and is the above "argument" null for everyone else? I.e., do others just not care that much about the storage? (Until it reaches ridiculous levels, like what is in essence a temp folder taking up 15GB.)

 

Yep I've known about the "vsp1cln.exe" trick for a while. Glad it's being mentioned in the press now.

 

Just checked my folder, on laptop that's been running vista for almost a year; clean install, reformated and reinstalled to get rid of oem bloat, and my folder is 8kb of disk space used. Just for comparison. Vista 32bit, SP2, and I have a ton of utilities that are installed, and countless others that have been un-installed.

 

Sorry about that, just wanted to be snooty for once. I know Linux isn't for everybody and likewise isn't unbreakable, but that more my fault than linuxes. Also I run dual boot, untill ofcourse swapping hardrives to new hardware made WinXP give up.
I have seen the light of ways and am repentant and seek forgiveness from the almighty Kernels.
PS: I'm NOT being sarcastic.

 

Definitely see your point - on my Media PC it's not too much of an issue as I've got a 750GB disk and could extend the OS partition. Mechanical storage is, as you say, cheap.

However, I'm now a touch worried about the switch to an SSD that I'd like to take - 128GB of SSD speediness might get gobbled up by an unruly winsxs folder pretty quickly!

 

Hmm, interesting. I'll have to have a look at this tonight as my OS partition is only 30 GB and I noticed last night that I've only got around 2 GB left of that. Documents and page file are on separate partitions so there really shouldn't be 28 GB in use.

 

Well, in you case it could be system restore points.
You can clear them up, but then it will clear the ability to go (or view to access) back in time on a file, folder, drive, or system.
30GB is not enough, you need AT LEAST 50GB, if you want the ability to use system restore point and go really back in time over a few days, and not worry about clearing it.

 

I don't have a vsp1cln.exe file in my System32 folder.... any ideas?
My winsxs folder is at 14Gb and could do with trimming down!
I'm on SP2 if that makes a difference...

I do have a vsp1cln.exe in "C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-v..ck-uninstallremoval_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_dc83934b9415d3b6" but it does not do anything (even when running as administrator)...
Cheers,
Doggeh

 

MS changed the game about in SP2 a little. In SP2 Vsp1cln.exe is now changed to to Compcln.exe. Its still located in system 32. It basically does the same thing.

Compcln.exe, should restore HDD space by permanently deleting the previous versions of the files (like when you go from SP1 to SP2) and there is no way of getting them back also.

To accomplish this :


Open a command prompt (start then type 'CMD')

Type in Compcln.exe

It prompts to make SP2 permanent on your computer, meaning you can't go back to SP1 once you run it.

That's it.

 

If that appears somewhere in the mag....I want some Kudos !