re: Question about 'What to Throw Away'
Monday, September 27, 2004 at 1:37 pm
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Laird
(1 messages posted)
You can delete a lot of stuff. As mentioned, you can delete all the "hidden" $UnInstall$
folders. Also, there is teh Windows\Help folder with ~50Mb.
Then, the Drivers.cab file can be deleted from Windows\Drivers folder. This file
allows Windows to automatically install drivers for a plethora of popular peripherals.
However, if disk space is at a premium, you can always schlep out the WinXP install
CD.
Then, you can get rid of the stupidly large DllCache folder, which maintains duplicate
copies of Windows core system files for the "System File Checker" utility. If any
part of Windows is corrupted, this thing replaces the damaged files automatically.
Great idea if you have the disk space, but if you don't... (or if you already have
a Ghost/Drive Image backup of your Windows drive, then you don't need it.)
Before deleting the DLLcache folder, though, you should disable SFC in the registry.
Otherwise it will just rebuild the folder. Go here:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Change SFCQuota from 0ffffff to 0, then you can delete all files in DLLcache. Note
that this folder is a +hidden +system folder, so you have to turn off "Hide Protected
Operating System Files" in Folder Options.
Also, after installing SPak 2, the morons (sorry, I mean mavens) at MS created a
new folder, Windows\ServicePackFiles, which supplements the DLLcache folder (and
increases cached driver files from 400Mb to ~700Mb in total). Note that the referenced
KB mentions that if you reinstall the latest Service Pack the SFC system will be
rebuilt and those folders recreated. So, if you don't like the results of your tinkering,
just reapply the SPak.
In total, you've come close to reducing the installed footprint of WinXP by almost
a gig. Now, if we only could do something about its RAM requirements...
Worst version of Windows ever, imo.
Laird
On Tuesday, September 10, 2002 at 1:34 pm, User wrote:
>Since the topic is throwing away junk in XP.
>Just thought I would mention that after you install SP1.
>There is a folder [ServicePackFiles] with two sub folders.
>[i386] and [lang] these folders have about 280mg of files which you can delete.
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