Re: Can you reduce bloated Windows Folder to increase disk space o
- From: Bruce Chambers <bchambers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:40:54 -0700
C Reyn wrote:
Ken,
I'm a bit disappointed in that the question is a yes /no item, but thanks for your response.
Why disappointed? You have an antique computer that may meet your needs adequately, but is still at the low end of WinXP's supported hardware spectrum. There is only so much that can be done with such limited resources.
Some steps can be taken to free up hard drive space, though none of these pertain directly to the Windows folder:
A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly every web page your friend has ever visited. Try reducing the amount of temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options > General, Temporary Files > Settings.
Same principle for the Java cache. Start > Control Panel > Java > Temporary Internet Files > Settings.
The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By default, WinXP sets aside a maximum of 12% of the partition's size for storing System Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for this purpose can be adjusted by the user. Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > System Restore Settings, select the pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to use System Restore at all, simply turn off the System Restore feature (Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore, System Restore Settings) and reboot. This will delete all of your Restore Points, freeing up the hard drive space.
Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. By default, this takes up to 10% of your hard drive capacity. On today's large hard drives, this is tremendously wasteful. (It's even more wasteful, relatively speaking, on the tiny drive you have.) It can be set to a lower limit by right-clicking the desktop Receycle Bin icon, selecting Properties, and using the slider bar to lower the maximum size to something more reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more than enough space.
FYI, the laptap is at this moment attached to a 160GB external drive but I would like to shrink the BLOATED Windows folder nonetheless.
The Windows folder itself holds very little that can be truly classified as "bloat;" nearly everything there has a purpose, even if you don't happen to take advantage of all of Window's built-in features. Within the Windows folder itself, you can delete fonts that you don't use to free up a few hundred kilobytes. The same for most of the *.log files. If you're confident that you won't need to uninstall either the most recent service pack or any of the subsequent hotfixes, you can safely delete the C:\Windows\$NTuninstall..." folders. You can also make sure the C:\Windows\Temp (created for and used by legacy applications) is empty.
One other observation and I'll move along and resolve the problem myself: My first machine was an IBM Model 80 with about 250K of storage and a helluva lot less RAM. We put a man on the moon with the computing power of a X-286 machine. Could we agree that Microsoft /Windows
programming has become a lot Less Elegant in the interim?
Plotting a course to the moon was a little more than a mathematical exercise in ballistics and fuel consumption rates, and actually required a lot less of a computer that people expect of their PCs and operating systems today. There certainly wasn't any call for fancy graphics, media players, games, etc., and a GUI interface to be built in so that users wouldn't have to actually learn to use the computer.
With all due respect, you guys gotta clean up some of the sloppy programming.
With all due respect, you're not addressing anyone who has any control over Microsoft's programmers. There are no Microsoft employees regularly perusing this newsgroup in any official capacity. If you've valid technical suggestions on how to improve the product (not that it matters very much now, with WinXP nearing its End-of-Life), you should present these via official Microsoft channels
--
Bruce Chambers
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