Windows 7 folder 13 gb

Then, click Clear now under the Free up space now section. To delete other type of files, check the box before it and click Remove files. As mentioned above, system restore point and backup can be one of the reasons why your WinSxS folder too big.

You can delete it and temporarily fix the low disk space issue on your computer. But it's not recommended. Anyway, you need a system backup to ensure the data security of the computer.

Thus, it's suggested to reduce backup size as soon as possible instead of deleting it. Option 1. Compress your backup. Click Options and Advanced. Then select Normal or High Compression level. Option 2. Use differential backup or incremental backup instead of full backup. Option 3.

Delete old backup at a regular time. Click Scheme , open Enable Backup Scheme and select one of the backup schemes. Option 4. To reduce the size of internal hard drive, you need to create offsite backup, which will not occupy the disk space of your local drive.

In the first of place, download and install it on your computer. Then, prepare an external hard drive or any storage other than the computer. Launch this software, click Backup and System Backup subsequently. Click the folder shapped button to select the prepared device and hit Next. By default, this software will automatically select system partition and boot related partitions for you. And all the data on the system partition will also be included. Here you have 3 options, set compresion level in Options , enable incremental or differential backup in Schedule or delete old backup images using Scheme , select one or more of them.

Then, click Start Backu p to backup system without occuping much space. To fix Windows folder size too big, you have 4 methods. To delete files you don't want or service pack, please see Method 1 to Method 3. In addition, it's still a disk clone software, which can greatly reduce the downtime in the event of a disaster.

Because it allows you to clone disk to larger disk or clone large HDD to smaller SSD and then install on your computer directly to start Windows. Why is my Windows folder size too large? What to delete from the computer? Join , subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This folder builds up unnecessary files over time, such as old versions of system components.

This folder also contains files for uninstalled, disabled Windows components. In fact, component files elsewhere in Windows are just links to files contained in the WinSXS folder. The WinSXS folder contains every operating system file. Windows 7 dealt with this by including a feature that allows Windows to clean up old Windows update files after you install a new Windows service pack.

The idea was that the system could be cleaned up regularly along with service packs. However, Windows 7 only saw one service pack — Service Pack 1 — released in Microsoft has no intention of launching another. To fix this problem, Microsoft recently backported a feature from Windows 8 to Windows 7. The next time you reboot after doing this, Windows will take a few minutes to clean up system files before you can log in and use your desktop.

Windows 8 and 8. This day period gives you time to uninstall an update if it causes problems. Windows 8. These commands must be run in an elevated Command Prompt — in other words, start the Command Prompt window as Administrator. The following command will remove files needed for uninstallation of service packs. The following command will remove all old versions of every component. Modern versions of Windows allow you to enable or disable Windows features on demand.

However, these features take up space. For this reason, Windows 8 added a new option that allows you to remove these uninstalled components from the WinSXS folder entirely, freeing up space. If you choose to install the removed components later, Windows will prompt you to download the component files from Microsoft.

To do this, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator. Use the following command to see the features available to you:. You can get the feature name you need from the table above. Privacy policy. This article provides a resolution to solve the disk space issues that are caused by a large Windows component store WinSxS directory.

Servicing operations include, but are not limited to, Windows Update, service pack, and hotfix installations. The component store contains all the files that are required for a Windows installation. And, any updates to those files are also held within the component store as the updates are installed. This causes the component store to grow over time as more updates, features, or roles are added to the installation.

The component store uses NTFS hard links between itself and other Windows directories to increase the robustness of the Windows platform.

The component store will show a large directory size because of how the Windows Explorer shell accounts for hard links.

The Windows shell will count each reference to a hard link as a single instance of the file for each directory in which the file resides. For example, if a file that is named advapi The component store cannot reside on a volume other than the system volume because of the NTFS hard links. If you try to move the component store, this will result in the inability to correctly install Windows updates, service packs, roles, or features.

Additionally, we do not recommend that you manually remove or delete files from the component store. To reduce the size of the component store directory on a Windows installation, you can decide to make the service pack installation permanent and reclaim used space from the service pack files.