Winsxs Folder size increased to 60 GB

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• Thursday, March 05, 2009 3:47 AM

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  hi there,
  
  many users have reported the issue of winsxs folder getting increased in size, this folder is basically a OS folder which you should not modifiy / play around with. OS stores dll refernce files in windows sxs ( side by side ) folder which is very much needed for OS to refer to particular version of dll
  
  below is the excellent post explaining the same ( they have explained for windows vista ) but windows sxs folder does same job on all flavour OS .
  
  http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/itprovistaannouncements/thread/9411dbaa-69ac-43a1-8915-749670cec8c3/

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  sainath Windows Driver Development

  • Proposed As Answer by David Shen Thursday, March 05, 2009 9:33 AM
  • Unproposed As Answer by David Shen Friday, March 06, 2009 4:12 AM
  • Marked As Answer by David Shen Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:38 AM
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• Thursday, March 05, 2009 9:12 PM

   

   
  

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  Hy,
  
  Is there any way to get back the empty space or some thing coz it is too difficult to survive having a 0MB in C drive. i just want to know the method how to delete or make empty space coz now it has taken more then 60 GB size plz help me out to delete some files or give me the way through which i can get some empty space.
  
  Regards

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  SKHATRI
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• Friday, March 06, 2009 7:04 AM

   

   
  

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  Hi SKHATRI,

   

  Based on the research, all the necessary files for specific additions, roles, applications will be contained in the %windir%\Winsxs directory. The %windir%\winsxs folder (also referred to as the component store) is used to store all the installation source files that is needed for Windows Server 2008 to service itself and its optional components, which takes the place of the traditional flat from media.

   

  All the shared and private assemblies, manifests, backed up system files, etc, are critical to the operation system of Windows Server 2008 and all of the installed programs. If any of these shared assemblies are removed and you install a program that requires that assembly, the program will simply refuse to run. 
   

  Here is a blog which describe it in detailed.
  
  What is the WINSXS directory in Windows 2008 and Windows Vista and why is it so large?http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/09/17/what-is-the-winsxs-directory-in-windows-2008-and-windows-vista-and-why-is-it-so-large.aspx
  
  If you want to decrease the space that the Winsxs folder takes, you may consider the way which is described in the following Blog.
  
  What's winsxs\manifestcache\(something)_blobs.bin?
  http://blogs.msdn.com/jonwis/archive/2009/01/13/what-s-winsxs-manifestcache-lt-something-gt-blobs-bin.aspx
  
  Hope it helps.

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  David Shen - MSFT

  • Marked As Answer by David Shen Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:38 AM
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• Friday, March 06, 2009 6:30 PM

   

   
  

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  Hello Skhatri,
  Goto the \windows\winsxs\manifestcache folder
  What are the sizes of the *blobs.bin files in that folder?

  ---

  Thanks, Darrell Gorter[MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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• Monday, March 09, 2009 9:54 AM

   

   
  

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  Hi SKHATRI,

   

  As these files under  %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\ are used by the Windows Update mechanism in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista. It acts like a cache and is capped at a certain size, it's safe to delete these files.

   

  You may refer to the following steps to remove the file under the %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\ to release some disk space that the WinSXS folder takes.

   

  Run the following commands from an elevated command prompt:

   

  Net stop trustedinstaller

   

  NOTE: Wait for it to stop and ensure it stops successfully. If you are unable to stop the service, you may need to restart your machine.

   

  Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\*

  Icacls %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\* /GRANT administrators:F

  Del /q %windir%\winsxs\ManifestCache\*

   

  Hope it helps.

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  David Shen - MSFT

  • Marked As Answer by David Shen Tuesday, March 10, 2009 9:38 AM
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• Wednesday, June 24, 2009 1:01 AM

   

   
  

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  I'm having this issue too, but my cache file as grown to about 200 GB and I am unable to take ownership of the *.bin.
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• Friday, May 14, 2010 5:05 PM

   

   
  

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  Hi... it's wonderful that we now have a full explanation on the purpose of this folder...however, this doesn't help us in getting it cleaned up... Or are you guys actually saying there's no way (or no future plans) to implement something to clean this up...  The folder will just keep growing and growing...indefinately?  Then the question then stands, why wasn't this disclosed?  I mean system requirements show Minimum: 32 GB or greater...  My windows server 2008 server has a 40gb partition based on that figure...  14gb of which now belong to the SXS folder... This is also going to be the problem for Windows 7 users... 

   

  Solution??? 

   

  thks..

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  SJ
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• Tuesday, May 18, 2010 11:43 PM

   

   
  

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  I know this is an old thread, but I gree with the last poster - telling us it's some important stuff just makes us throw our hands up in the air and complain about Microsoft.  I started with the biggest SSD I could get from IBM and relucantly installed Server 2008 on it.  Now, I'm totally out of room and it's apparently just old restore points and downloaded windows updates.  I need to get rid of them!

  So is there a real solution?

  My ManifestCache has only one .bin in it, that's about a gigabyte in size.

  @David Chen: posting the same thing over and over doesn't contribute to much but the nice shiny medals under your name.  Cut and paste much do you? :)

  == John ==

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  == John ==
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• Tuesday, June 08, 2010 4:07 PM

   

   
  

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  Hey John,
  We're in the same boat here. I've put up posts about this starting 8 months ago and I still have not heard a solid answer. There are even two different explanations from Microsoft as to the contents of the WinSXS folder: one article says that it only contains hard links and another says that it contains different versions of DLL's, updates, etc.
  
  The fact still remains that it is causing a SEVERE disk space issue.
  
  And the mantra that disk space is inexpensive is flat-out wrong. I'm sorry, but SSD and SAS drives are not cheap. 
  
  We understand that this behavior of WinSXS is by-design, but based on what we are experiencing, we consider it a design flaw in Server 2008. We are having a great deal of frustration and, frankly, are wasting our time dealing with this issue. We have several servers that were built well-within the system requirements; but their system partitions have been filling up from the WinSXS directory and now Service Pack installations are not even possible.
  
  Also, on a test server I'm working with, our ManifestCache folder is only 200MB...not even a dent.
  
  Has anyone found a real-world, practical solution to this problem?
  
  Thanks,
  Steve
  
  
  

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• Wednesday, June 16, 2010 10:46 PM

   

   
  

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  All...  since we were getting nowhere fast on this thread, I opened another yesterday...  Please see http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winservergen/thread/bccb5f78-ce86-4be2-873a-f36544c7a8c9 for post and answer...

  thanks...

   

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  SJ
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• Wednesday, July 21, 2010 7:50 PM

   

   
  

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  FYI - I had to restart my server after deleteing the blob file in the ManifestCache folder to get my space back. My winsxs directory went from 40gb down to approx 10gb.

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• Wednesday, August 11, 2010 9:09 PM

   

   
  

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  Something should to be done to allow safe trimming of bloat from this folder. It is pretty bad when you can't even install SP2 on a Vista box because the hard drive is full. And that is after applying pending patches from WSUS and adding Anti-Virus software after a clean installation. No other applications/services/accessories were installed. Attempts to utilize vsp1cln.exe did not provide sufficient free space to continue. (Note: on a Vista x86 box with SP2, compcln.exe recovered less than 400 MB space.) This box was built as a testing VM with a 20 GB hard drive (min recommended size for Vista x64 per MS site). Granted one can grow the size of the VHD on a VM but on a physical box or home user system, that may not be possible. If anyone were to attempt any additional application installs, they would be frustrated by insufficient disk space warnings. Given the size some others are reporting that the WinSXS folder has bloated to, even current computers can become choked over time.

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• Friday, February 25, 2011 9:00 AM

   

   
  

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  I appreciate this is an old thread, but this problem is three hours old for me. Running treesize I discovered that I have 73GB of 139GB used on my drive. I like to keep my drive usage below 50% if possible to keep it fast (Velociraptor).

   

  Now I've been fairly good at changing the amount of space that the system volume area can use (10GB), and now I have to contend with a winsxs folder which was 19GB!! I've managed to trim it down using compcln and nifty batchfile by a clever person (gets rid of excess files, such as jpgs, WMP files etc). Now it's at 15GB or so.

   

  Why does Microsoft insist on bloatware? I don't want a 2TB drive. It's of no use to me if the OS in use behaves itself. Here's a couple of ideas for Microsoft. Rather than another batch of useless autoupdate and scheduler processes which won't die without a fight, why doesn't MS keep a database of the winsxs folder online, and have a scheduled check with the user's local winsxs? It can update only the pertinent files, leaving the user with the minumum requirements (removing obsolete and/or no longer needed files and folders periodically).

  If a user installs or activates a program or service, the system can check winsxs, then go online for the appropriate data and add it.

   

  Oh, and how about being able to limit system volume restore points to a number, rather than an amount of disk space? Stupid doesn't quite cover it, considering there are thousands of different installation sizes and types out there, and 20GB or whatever will not suit everyone. Allow us to make it 3 or 5 or 105 if we so wish. I am sick of deleting them, in spite of limiting the disk space allowed. Should I decide to, I might want to change from 3 to 10 to allow for many changes. Why should I change my disk space allocation?

   

  I am increasingly considering a side by side alternative myself....called Linux. A tenth of the hassle once you're familiar with it, while with Windows one gets it easy for the first six to twelve months, then spend the next two to four years trying to improve things. Less bloatware : More common sense please!

   

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• Thursday, October 06, 2011 5:26 PM

   

   
  

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  I had the same problem with a Vista PC. It grew to 60 GB. Not only that, the hard drive showed 57% fragmented and this file was the main culprit. It was listed as unmovable and couldn't be defragged. I booted off the Vista Recovery CD and went in with a command prompt and deleted it. Rebooted and the system seems to be running OK.
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• Wednesday, December 14, 2011 8:23 PM

   

   
  

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  Hi all,

   

  Im a relative novice when it comes to stuff like this, so could anyone help explain to me how I can successfully delete the

  winsxs\manifestcache\*blobs.bin file?

   

  I have tried to do it directly, but i am being told i dont have permission.

  I have tried to follow the advice on one thread above, and delete it via the command prompt, but it is not letting me, telling me that access is denied.

   

  I have just 5GB remaining in my c:  and the blobs.bin file is taking up 25GB which seems crazy to me.

   

  Could anyone please explain in simple terms how I can go about removing this file.

  I would really appreciate it

   

  Jaykay2010

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• Sunday, March 25, 2012 12:25 PM

   

   
  

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  Okay maybe some background on the root of the problem would help.
  

  Windows XP (and Windows 2000) used a fast and great mechanism called Hotfix Installer (Update.exe) to install updates. Updates installed in very little time. If you wanted to further reduce update times on Windows XP, you could just temporarily stop the System Restore service and updates would install at crazy speeds. Note that this is not recommended for novice users who don't know advanced recovery methods, as some updates can sometimes cause your system to stop booting so you cannot even uninstall them. The method the Hotfix Installer used was simple, it just installed a new version of files to be updated at %windir%\system32 and %windir%\system32\dllcache (the Windows File Protection cache). For files that were in use, a restart copied them from dllcache to the system32 folder. This is simple file-based servicing. The hotfix installer (Update.exe) also supported various command line switches like /nobackup which means not to backup files it patches. Again, this is not recommended for novice users as some updates can screw your system even after the comprehensive testing Microsoft does before releasing them. But if you won't be uninstalling any updates (usually one only requires uninstalling updates if they cause problems), you could save a ton of disk space by not backing up the files it patched. The Hotfix Installer backed up files to C:\Windows\$Uninstall$KBxxxxxx folders so even if you did back up the files at install time, they could be safely deleted after a few days if no stability issues were found after using Windows with the newest updates applied. Update.exe also supported the very important and convenient ability to slipstream a service pack or update into the original Windows setup files using the /s switch.    

  .

  When Microsoft was developing Windows Vista, they realized that components had gotten too many interdepencies on each other and to service each file reliably without breaking another component that relied on it, Microsoft introduced what they called as Component Based Servicing (CBS). You can read all about it in a much more technical way at The Servicing Guy's blog. What CBS does basically is it installs all files of the entire operating system, including all languages into C:\Windows\WinSxS and then it hard-links files from there to C:\Windows\system32. This has the benefit of not having to insert the OS disc to add or remove any components, and some other advantages as well like offline servicing of a Windows Vista or Windows 7 image. But the design introduces a major disadvantage of taking up a lot of hard disk space. Whenever an update is installed, it no longer installs it to C:\Windows\system32 and C:\Windows\system32\dllcache like Windows XP's hotfix installer (Update.exe) did. Instead, it updates the files in C:\Windows\WinSxS. Now, Windows keeps multiple copies of the same file but with different version in WinSxS if it is used by more than one Windows component. The higher the number of components, that many number of times the file exists in C:\Windows\WinSxS. When a Windows Vista update (.MSU) is installed, the components get updated, each and every one, instead of the files and the worst part is it still maintains the older superseded previous versions of components in WinSxS so the user would be able to uninstall updates. Microsoft does say that some sort of "scavenging" or deleting older copies of components takes place but is scarce on the details. The scavenging seems to take place automatically at certain intervals in Windows 7 but not in Windows Vista. In Windows Vista, you have to add or remove any Windows component for the scavenging to take place. And Microsoft says the scavenging will free up some disk space but in practice, on my system, I see my free disk space only decreasing on Vista as I remove or add any component. Windows does not give the user an option to not backup the earlier versions of components like Windows XP's /nobackup switch in Hotfix Installer did. As as you install more and more updates on your system, they will take more and more disk space. This is one of the primary reasons Windows Vista and Windows 7 are so bloated. Another reason for them being so bloated is the DriverStore that these OSes store. All drivers that are shipped with the OS and the OEM ones which you download and which are installed for a particular system are staged in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore. But let's not go there for now.

  .

  Now, an important thing to note is that the size of the WinSxS folder is not what Explorer or the dir command report, it is far less but is misreported by Explorer because it counts the hard links more than once when calculating size. That does not mean, the size of WinSxS is not causing real-world disk space problems on numerous Windows Vista/7 systems in use today. Microsoft's ingenious recommendation to this problem of ever growing disk consumption is to install fewer updates to keep the size of the servicing store under control. Of course, users cannot deny installing security updates and leave their system open to security holes. What they can do is install less optional updates, the ones that Microsoft releases on the fourth Tuesday of every month and also install less of the hotfixes that are available by request from a Knowledge Base article. In short, you have to trade the number of bugs fixed in the OS by installing hotfixes at the cost of enormous amounts of disk space. The whole servicing stack is a total downgrade to Windows XP's update.exe method. It causes heavy disk thrashing and slow logoffs/logons while Windows configures these updates at the Welcome Screen. Many systems are unable to boot because of failed updates. Another disadvantage of the "new" servicing stack (and the redesigned Setup mechanism of Windows Vista) is the inability to do a true slipstream of service packs and hotfixes.
  The time it takes to actually install these hotfixes online compared to Windows XP is also completely unacceptable. When you start installing an MSU update, it spends a lot of time determining whether the update applies to your system. Then, the update itself takes much longer to install compared to Windows XP's Update.exe (hours instead of minutes if you are installing dozens of updates through a script). Finally, that post-installation process ("Configuring updates... Do not turn off your computer") takes several minutes before shut down followed by a second post-installation process (configuration) upon restart before logon that also takes also several minutes and thrashes the disk.

  .

  I can install the entire SP3 for Windows XP in about 10 minutes after downloading the full installer. I can also install a slipstreamed-with-SP3 copy of Windows XP is about 45 minutes on a modern fast PC. In contrast, Windows Vista or Windows 7 do install relatively quickly (in just about 15-20 minutes) on a modern PC but installing the service packs and updates takes more time than anything on XP did. Not only can service packs not be slipstreamed, but Vista Service Packs are not even cumulative, which means if you clean install Windows Vista today, you have to install SP1 first which takes about 90 minutes, then SP2 which takes less time, then all the post-SP2 updates which do take hours to install. If you really HAVE to use Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you are stuck with this slow update non-sense as Microsoft does not even acknowledge that there is any slowdown or loss of functionality in the new servicing mechanism. The fact remains: MSU updates are slow as **** and take too much time and as Windows 7/Vista get older and Microsoft stops producing service packs, a clean install is going to take longer and longer to bring it up-to-date with all patches installed. Is is worth wasting your time on an OS whose servicing mechanism Microsoft completely screwed up? I once again recommend you read more about the servicing stack and how it operates at The Servicing Guy's blog:http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/. To fix this messed up servicing stack, Microsoft also offers a tool called CheckSUR for your system if it finds “inconsistencies in the servicing store”.
  
  .

  Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows 7 products are not engineered with disk space in mind. It causes a problem, especially for SSDs which are still low capacity and very expensive. The only hope is that Microsoft again completely redesigns this servicing mechanism in a future Windows release so it would not cause this growing disk space consumption issue, speed up installation of updates by an order of magnitude, not slow down logon and logoff, not prevent systems becoming unusable because of failed updates being stuck at a particular stage and allow true slipstreaming.
  Microsoft's response to this is vague - they simply state "Windows 7's servicing is more reliable than Windows XP" but they cannot acknowledge it is a million times slower and still unreliable...slow to the point of being unusable and sometimes leaving systems in an unbootable damaged state. Of course they know all this too but can't admit it since it makes their latest OSes look poor. Moving from a very simple and fast update mechanism that worked to a complex one that requires endless “configuring” and repair through CheckSUR is a product engineering defect.

  Take a look at servicing-related complaints in Microsoft's own forums:
  
  1. Very slow install of updates to Windows 7
  2. Windows 7 - Updates are very slow
  3. Windows 7 Ultimate, it takes long time configuring updates
  4. "Preparing To Configure Windows. Please Do Not Turn Off Your Computer"
  5. Very slow update install at shutdown (Windows 7 Home Premium)
  6. Why does my computer run so slow when installing updates?
  7. Every time the computer is shut down, it always says installing update do not turn off your computer
  8. Computer is working slow and wants to do windows updates all the time
  9. Windows 7 Update install time taking a very long time
  10. Windows wants to install 6 updates every time I log off or put the computer in sleep mode
  11. Problem In Configuring Windows Updates at the time of Startup
  12. Computer really slow after latest updates
  13. Windows hangs up in "configuring updates"
  14. Why can't windows 7 install updates?
  15. Every time computer is shut down, receive Installing updates, do not shut off....
  16. How long does it take for the Windows 7 Home Premium updates take?
  17. Windows 7 "Installing Update 2 of 2" for 12 hours now
  18. Updates causes endless reboots
  19. Updates stuck installing for over 24 hrs. Computer does not boot
  20. Cannot load Windows 7 after installing 2 critical updates

  A proper solution to this problem would be to completely re-engineer and rewrite the servicing mechanism so it operates with the speed, reliability and pain-free operation of the XP servicing mechanism.

  I don't see this situation improving in Windows 8 either. Good luck with your Windows tablet taking hours to install service packs and updates. Now, do iPads take that long to install updates?

  Microsoft understated the real system requirements to keep a Windows 7/Vista system running. System requirements at install time may be 15 GB of free disk space but over time, this number increases to alarming levels as you install more service packs and post SP-updates. You can find out the real size of the WinSxS folder using a tool like cttruesize (ctts.exe) (download it from http://www.heise.de/software/download/cttruesize/50272 and run ctts -la -a -l C:\Windows to find the correct size minus the hard links which MS says causes Explorer to misreport the WinSxS folder size but the fact remains that even with the correctly calculated size of WinSxS, the disk space requirements of Windows 7 to keep it updated are unacceptable, especially for people's SSDs which are running out of disk space!

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