Winsxs cleanup windows 2008 r2 sp2

Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Asked by:. Archived Forums. Windows Server General Forum. Sign in to vote. Monday, April 20, PM. Hey, You can install disk cleanup wizard on the server, and clean up the Winsxs folder. Any ideas? Hi udnicke, Please try to using compcln. Wednesday, April 22, AM. Box has been up for almost 6 years. OS Version: 6. System Model: Vostro Removing this product might prevent some applications from running. Connection Name: Broadcom Wired.

DHCP Server: IP address es. Connection Name: Internal Wireless. Connection Name: Gbridge. Status: Media disconnected. Connection Name: Asus Wireless. This is the answer that got me good. Get a bigger disk? Lets see. We have raid 5 in each machine, about 10 clustered servers. Now exact same configuration for SQL Servers. Forget the cost, the time to implement, test and send to production takes months if things move faster through senior management approval Yes you can get a bigger disk for your server at home but this is not the answer for enterprise solution.

The disk cleanup is for cleaning temporary files here and there and would not work for winsxs issue. I cant believe Microsoft does not have answer for this issue. Poor coding? I dont what it is but this needs to be fixed soon.

But please keep in mind and MS often forgets this that a very large number of their users read customers have limited means to either extend hardware or purchase new hardware. We live in a very constrained world here. So, buying a new hard disk for example, is not the solution. Figuring out how to safely configure our systems, with the known effects, is the way most of us would prefer to go. This was the best solution so far for me. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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. 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. In contrast, Windows Vista or Windows 7 do install relatively quickly in just about 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. Is is worth wasting your time on an OS whose servicing mechanism Microsoft completely screwed up?

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 Of course they know all this too but can't admit it since it makes their latest OSes look poor. 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.

Very slow update install at shutdown Windows 7 Home Premium 6. Why does my computer run so slow when installing updates? 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 Windows wants to install 6 updates every time I log off or put the computer in sleep mode Computer really slow after latest updates Windows hangs up in "configuring updates" Why can't windows 7 install updates?

Every time computer is shut down, receive Installing updates, do not shut off How long does it take for the Windows 7 Home Premium updates take? Windows 7 "Installing Update 2 of 2" for 12 hours now Updates causes endless reboots Updates stuck installing for over 24 hrs. Computer does not boot 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? 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. Its been almost 20 months later Mine has reached 48GB on SP1.

What is this Windows Servicing about? A bug that Windows Developers create so they can "add" the fix later? Can we just have a fix that have options to make service packs permanent. Its not like if we un-install a SPs due to a bug, it would be successfully installed? Get a bigger disc? And even if the system were able to boot, it would be impossible to update.

So it's best to stick with the prescribed methods of cleaning up the WinSxS folder. While Task Scheduler will automatically run the StartComponentCleanup task on a regular basis, you can also run it manually at any time. Let's take a closer look. To continue, click OK. Unfortunately, even though the StartComponentCleanup task runs on a regular basis, you really can't find out much about how and why it runs or even when it will run next.

As you can see, the Triggers column is blank, as is the Next Run Time column. You'll also notice that the History option is disabled. All you can see for sure are the date and time in the Last Run Time column. In most cases, the Last Run Result shows 'The operation completed successfully.

As far as I've been able to determine, it translates to 'session object updated, must recreate session. To manually launch the StartComponentCleanup task, right click it and select Run from the context menu. The Status column will then read Running. Scavenging may also be performed proactively on Windows Server installations by forcing a removal event on the system.

Scavenging will try to remove any unwanted system binaries from the installation and enable Windows to reclaim the disk space. To issue an uninstall event on a Windows installation, add and remove any unwanted system component that is not already installed, and then restart the Windows installation. Scavenging will be performed during the following restart of the operating system. Click the Disk Cleanup icon, and run the Disk Cleanup tool to determine what files you can delete, based on your configuration.

When a product is installed by using Windows Installer, a smaller version of the original. Over time, this folder may grow larger. Every additional update installation for the installed products such as hotfixes, cumulative updates, or service pack setups also store their relevant.

We do not support and do not recommend that you delete any files in this folder or replace them with files from another computer. Any update to the application relies on the information that is available in the files that are stored in this folder.

Without this information, the updates cannot perform their installations correctly. Typically, you do not have to manage this folder because it is managed by Windows.