Remove sample mov files from winsxs

[GeraldF]

I want to free up some space on my C drive and would
like to remove the sample TV files that come with Vista
Ultimate and are found int he winsxs directory. The
problem, based on new security rules with vista, even
the administrator has no rights to delete these files.
How can it be done?

Thanks

 

[Lang Murphy]

I want to free up some space on my C drive and would
like to remove the sample TV files that come with Vista
Ultimate and are found int he winsxs directory. The
problem, based on new security rules with vista, even
the administrator has no rights to delete these files.
How can it be done?

Thanks

I have Ultimate and I have no .mov files in windows\winsxs... must've been
put there by QT installer or some other app. At any rate... have you tried
changing permissions on the files in question?

Lang

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

I want to free up some space on my C drive and would
like to remove the sample TV files that come with Vista
Ultimate and are found int he winsxs directory. The
problem, based on new security rules with vista, even
the administrator has no rights to delete these files.
How can it be done?

IIRC, those movie clips (from Apollo 13, Vertigo, etc) were somewhere in the
Public folder before I deleted them.

ss.

 

[GeraldF]

IIRC, those movie clips (from Apollo 13, Vertigo, etc) were somewhere in the
Public folder before I deleted them.

Because of problems I was having with network and video
drivers I had to do an install upgrade. It kept all my
previous settings and resolved all my video and network
problems, but place these in the c:\windows\winsxs
directory. This directory cannot have files removed, as
full security privlidges are given only to the
trustedinstaller (not even the administrator). I would
like to get these files off the system.

Thanks

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Because of problems I was having with network and video
drivers I had to do an install upgrade. It kept all my
previous settings and resolved all my video and network
problems, but place these in the c:\windows\winsxs
directory. This directory cannot have files removed, as
full security privlidges are given only to the
trustedinstaller (not even the administrator). I would
like to get these files off the system.

Try to delete them in Safe Mode. As your computer is booting up, keep
pressing F8, and you will get an option to start in Safe Mode.

ss.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Gerald

I understand that the winsxs folders looks like a good place to go if you
are trying to free up space on the drive, since it is huge.

The problem is that this folder is where the Vista Resource Protection
lives. It's best to not try and change the security, permissions or try and
selectively delete files from that folder.

You might want to start with Disk Cleanup and get rid of all the temp files,
older system restore points, the windows.old folder (if it is present), etc.

If hard drive space is getting critical, a good quality external drive is a
good solution for storing files.

 

[GeraldF]

If hard drive space is getting critical, a good quality external drive is a
good solution for storing files.

This is a 40 GB drive with nothing but the OS on it. All
other programs (MS Office etc) are stored on another
drive. I don't understand why Vista Ultimate has to
consume 14 GB of space just for the OS. Now if those
files are critical, they should be able to be moved to
another drive?

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

This is a 40 GB drive with nothing but the OS on it. All
other programs (MS Office etc) are stored on another
drive. I don't understand why Vista Ultimate has to
consume 14 GB of space just for the OS. Now if those
files are critical, they should be able to be moved to
another drive?

Gerald

Your maximum size for System Restore may be way too large, you should adjust
this. By default Vista sets the maximum size allocated for VSS (Volume
Shadow Storage) to 15% of the disk size. With some of newer drives, this can
result in a huge amount of space being allocated and used.

First, free up all of your disk space by deleting all but the most current
restore point. Go to Start/All Programs/Accessories/Disk Cleanup and you
will see the option there.

Go to Start and type cmd.exe in the results, right click the cmd.exe
item and
select the "Run as administrator" option. OK the UAC prompt.

When the command window opens, type the following.

vssadmin list shadowstorage

Press ENTER.

The result will show the current amount of Used, Allocated, and Maximum
allowed size for the Volume Shadow Storage on your system.

The following command will set the maximum amount of disk space used for
the shadow
storage to 2GB.

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=2.0GB
Press ENTER.

(type the command as shown, including the spaces)
You should see a message that the command succeeded.

This command assumes that your system drive is C: