Vista Download Space Question

[Chad Harris]

I have noticed this, and seen references to naming the files with them
contexted as ancillary setup files--not in those words but that was the gist
of the meaning, and I can find the "setup files" I'm refrencing for XP, and
for XP SP2 but I'm having trouble locating these:

The problem is that I'm trying to find the files that get sent to C:\
automatically when you download a Vista ISO--I want to get rid of them
because I need the space. I suppose their function is ancillary setup
files, but am not sure why they locate on C:\ no matter where the ISO is
sent.

On a machine with XP on C:\ I downloaded the Vista Beta 2 (I imagine the
size of the files I'm trying to locate will get smaller as builds go further
and have read MSFTie statements they will) and I sent the ISO to F:\. When I
started the download, I had over a GB of space on the C:\ drive. After the
download had gone for a while, I noticed that I was getting the "C\ is full
bubble at the notification area,

I've tried to search the C:\ and C:\Windows folders, Temp, and other folders
but I can't locate what's taken up a GB of space with nothing installed and
the only download was the Vista Iso.

I don't have much to unload to make space, or even enough to run DxHog Hunt
to look for them. I should be able to find something taking up that much
space by arranging the folders as to size, but that hasn't helped me.

CH

 

[Jane C]

If you're referring to the ISO images that you are downloading/have
downloaded from Microsoft.....mine came down as a single ISO file with
no_other_files_at_all. Each ISO went straight to where I saved it to.

 

[Guest]

I am guess as you suspect that they are downloading to temp inet files first,
and then copying to the destination you chose. Possibly could be going to
content.ie5 which is a super hidden folder.

Should be able to view the folders/files inside content.ie5 in a cmd prompt.

C:\Documents and Settings\<local account>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\content.ie5

You may or may not have to attrib the directory first to see it.Depends.

C:\Documents and Settings\User X\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
attrib -s -h -r content.ie5

Let me know.Interested in finding out

 

[Mark D. VandenBerg]

Good point, Ron. Why IE7 still does this I can not fathom, when every other
browser/download manager seems to save the file where you direct.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

At least in IE7 on Vista, it must save all downloads to a temporary
directory because of the new "protected mode".

Essentially, when protected mode is enabled, IE7 does not have access to any
file, registry key, or any other "securable" object on the system (including
other programs running on the system), unless that object has been marked as
"low security". So far, I have found no way to tell what security level
objects have been marked ... but, I would suspect that IE7 has no access
rights outside of the temporary internet files folder or the few registry
keys that activex controls need access to.

So how does file saving work, then?

Well, IE downloads to temporary internet files first. Then, IE7 sends
control to a "broker" program that is running in "normal security" mode.
This program is what prompts you for permission to save or open the file.
Once you've given permission, the broker copies the file from the temporary
folder to its final destination.

In this way, even if IE7 is hacked and in the control of a rouge program, it
cannot access the filesystem or registry except thru the broker program,
which will always ask for a user's permission... so this will eleminate
most, if not all, of the problems where IE is taken over and infects the
computer with a virus, malware, anything.

Unless the user gives permission, or there are major security vulnerablities
with both IE7 and the broker program, and the attacker can figure out how to
get past both .... will be interesting to see if anyone is successful.

- JB

Vista FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Correct. It is sandboxing. Read up on Virtualization (not virtual
machines) in the MS blogs. The Redirector is probably doing this. The
Internet Zone is totally untrusted now.

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

Got it. For my protection. Got it. Glad I don't use IE.

 

[Chad Harris]

Jane--

I was referring to the space taken by setup files that Vista has to send to
C:\ or the XP drive no matter where you park it--and I don't mean the boot
loader utilities it parks at C:\boot which take up little space. I have
seen various descriptions and names for them, and have threads somewhere on
them, and when I find them I'll be more specific.

I agree with you that if the ISO image has been downloaded correctly and not
truncated it should come the way you say with no other files at all.

CH

 

[Jane C]

Chad, I was wondering if that was what you meant. I actually installed
Vista onto my C drive, as D has XP x64 on it, so didn't actually notice any
leftover files/folders once the install had completed.

 

[Chad Harris]

Yep. Jane.

And thanks to Ron for pointing me in the direction I knew I should go in. I
was able to use DX Hog Hunt to surgically excise enough files to carve out
about 2.3 GB of free space on C--I cannot explain why C:\ became full after
I downloaded the ISO without any ancillary files in its folder showing.
I've downloaded Vista ISOs many times before. So this still remains a
mystery. BTW, I didn't mean files that would be clearly identifiable in the
folder with the ISO--I meant files somewhere else that isn't intuitive. But
the only thing I can come up with is that these files would show up if you
found them *after* running the Vista setup and installing Vista. My space
problem occurred right after the download.

What I've been driving at though that I didn't see and thought could take up
considerable space were files that come with Vista. They probably are on
the Vista drive and I'll go after that next. In other words while Vista is
3.12 GB or in the ballpark, when it installs you have about 7-8GB as I
remember of the volume used up. I was going after those ancillary setup
files, and I'm going to look for them next.

There are other files besides the hibernation file and the paging/swap file,
and those are the ones I'm after along the lines of this discussion by Ed
Bott--the author of XP Inside Out MSFT Press and soon to be the author of
Vista Inside Out.

Does Vista really need 15GB of disk space?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=64

I'm going to continue to look for this info and if anyone knows it with more
precision--what files come in with the Vista ISO that spell several more GB
I'd be interested in knowing. Ususally files that come in may be necessary
for uninstall in the case of a service pack--say SP2 but in the case of this
OS I'm not sure what they are, where they are, or why they take up so much
space but they do.

If you remember your install of Vista to C:\ and you were watching, above
and beyond the over 3GB you had about best I can remember 4 GB additional
space taken by ancillary files. It's my understanding that the space of
these files will decreas as Vista builds roll toward RTM.

I wish I could name them, and finding info on them isn't easy. The setup
teams at MSFT, and there are several of them all with off beat abbreviations
and names could nail this best.


I solved my space problem by using a free space locating type app that runs
and lfinds every file and lists it assigns its real estate (space).

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

which also has a Hog Icon it its folder you can put on your desktop and
become the envy of the nieghborhood.

Although making certain that what you delete is not always easy given their
off beat extensions that you can define but the files don't always google
well. I steer clear of essential system files and always set a restore
point. Basically by breaking down Documents and Settings/Application Data I
was able to get rid of a number of log files in the area Ron Rector was
singling out
C:\Documents and Settings\<local account>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\content.ie5

one I've looked in many times. Many were logs, and others were files and
folders of apps I don't need to run anyway that were left over from
Add/Remove.


If Anyone is under the illusion that Add/Remove programs is a crisp
efficient utility in Windows, it isn't; it fails often (and I'm a frequent
user of the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility to get rid of broken files and
strings in the way of the MSI's path for install and unisnstall. It never
will be in Vista, Blackcomb or whatever.

Thanks,

CH


It's frustrating because info on Vista setup files is hard to find. But I
know in general, and this is very crude that whatever space a build takes up