WinSxS large folder in Windows that are larger in 8.1 • ITCRS

The folder winsxs is large and continues to grow as more updates are made.

It's in Win8.1 or later, an automatic function that clears the 30 days old updates but sometimes you need to clear to get the disk space, especially if you have the system on an SSD.

The path:

C:\Windows\winsxs

To see the actual size of this folder, run a command as Administrator.

Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

Then you can see the difference what Windows reports for the size of the folder and the actual size. Clear with these three commands each of the first takes a long time.

The second command with /ResetBase removes the update and then they cannot be uninstalled.
The third command removes the service pack and it does not have Windows 10.

DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /SPSuperseded

After the new installation of Windows 8.1 and updates of all KB so the folder winsxs 15 GB. After cleaning 4,7 GB and it may be worthwhile if space is tight.

Ran it on a Windows 10 The effect of the 10,6 GB to 7,2 GB. This is most likely due to the fact that Windows 10 run cleanup automatically after a few days.