The winsxs folder

[xenol]

I've might've found out what causes Vista's intense hard drive bloat. There's a folder in C:\Windows called winsxs. Some time in Google tells me this is the Windows Side By Side folder, which was Microsoft's fix to DLL hell. It basically keeps a copy of different version of a DLL that might be needed in order to maximize compatibility.

Question is, why would it be *counts* 11GB on my install? This feature has been around since Windows Me and it's on XP. But neither get this large and at least XP doesn't suffer DLL hell.

Question two would be to ask is there any way to reduce its size?

 

[arges86]

running vsp1cln.exe (assuming you have Vista SP1) will cut down the size. the file is run from command prompt (start --> cmd) its found in your C:\Windows\System32 folder.

 

[xenol]

It sort of helped, it dropped winsxs to 8.9GB