Excessive size of WINDOWS folder

[Guest]

The size of my WINDOWS folder has grown to almost 6 gb or 30% of my total
hard drive capacity. Is this normal? If not, is there a way to clean up the
contents of the folder? The normal cleanup processes of Windows XP and
McAfee don't seem to have much effect.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

The size of my WINDOWS folder has grown to almost 6 gb or 30% of my
total hard drive capacity. Is this normal? If not, is there a way
to clean up the contents of the folder? The normal cleanup
processes of Windows XP and McAfee don't seem to have much effect.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Normal?
That's too subjective - we have no idea what you have put in there nor what
you have cleaned up.
We do not utilize your system nor maintain it.
Normal for you? Maybe.
My Windows folder on one of my systems is 3.55GB.

Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed..

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but yuor
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 512MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/


Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for a quick response. I will try your suggestions. I'm sure they
will be a help.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

The size of my WINDOWS folder has grown to almost 6 gb or 30% of my
total hard drive capacity. Is this normal? If not, is there a way to
clean up the contents of the folder? The normal cleanup processes of
Windows XP and McAfee don't seem to have much effect.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

As Shenan said, there really is no "normal" and it depends on you and how
you use your computer. 6GB is bigger than some, but not necessarily
"excessive."

Are you running short of disk space? You have a 20GB drive. How much of that
drive is free? Shenan gave you some good suggestions for reclaiming some
disk space, but over and above those, you should realize that a 20GB drive
is *tiny* these days. You can't even find a new drive that small for sale
anymore. If you make much use of your computer, and you are presently short
of disk space, you should recognize that you will very likely need to buy a
larger drive very soon, and this might be a good time to bite the bullet and
do it. Drives are very cheap right now. For example, you can find 80GB
drives for well under $80. Google for them.