Guide: Slimming Vista.

Guide: Slimming Vista's Windows Directory.


Before reading and making any changes to the windows directory, you must take control of it, by using the following instructions:
1)
Login as administrator. If on the login screen the admin account does not appear:

2)
Download the TakeOwnership.reg file from:
http://hosted.filefront.com/jisaac

3)
Double click the file, and click yes to any registry changes.

4)
Now, right click the windows folder and click on 'Take Ownership.' A command prompt should now appear, as all the changes are being made. Once the process stops, you have now full control over the windows folder.

If you follow this guide, feel free to post the size of the windows directory, before and after.

 

Cool. I'd probably do it if I weren't so tired right now.

 

i was wondering could i use this method to take ownership of my windows.old folder so i can delete it without getting any error messages about file / folder not found?

 

If you can't delete the windows.old folder because you do not have permission, then yes, just right-click the folder and then click 'Take Ownership.'

 

Good stuff, I'll have to use this when I get home.

 

Here's another tip...

For people that have SP1 installed, you can gain back several hundred MB by running the Windows Vista SP1 File Removal Tool.

To run Windows Vista SP1 File Removal Tool, open a command prompt (Cmd) or simply press “Winkey + R” keyboard shortcut. Then enter the following command: Vsp1cln.exe

When SP1 installs, it saves the components it updates on your computer in case you decide to uninstall SP1. If you decide to keep it, those files are useless and you can safely run Vsp1cln.exe

 

Don't do all that stuff unless you're really anal about HDD space. The only sane tweak would be to remove all the unnecessary drivers, but then if you even put a memory stick you will have to find drivers (unless Windows Update already has them).
It's easier to use vLite to "slim" Vista from the start.

 

I do not recommend taking ownership of the Windows directory because then it's easy for malware to mess with your OS... just like if you ran with UAC turned off. However, if I'm reading this guide right, it has you take ownership while logged in as Administrator... I'm not sure why that's even necessary at all, but maybe it is, I don't know.

Anyway I wouldn't recommend this stuff unless you're REALLY short on disk space. Otherwise, saving a few hundred mb here and there isn't too exciting... the drivers tweak might save a gigabyte or so, but I actually do use a bunch of the built-in drivers, so personally I'd rather keep them around. But you could probably back them up to a DVD or something I guess...

I definitely do recommend running the SP1 cleaner script though... can't argue with that one. Wait, I'm not sure if that's what you meant by the Vista Cleaner script or not. Oh well, whatever...

 

There is a vlite guide in my sig. however not everyone has the time to reinstall an OS (backing up documents, important files etc...). vlite is a better option, however this IMO is an, easy, quick way to save space, without going through the hassle of a complete reinstall. This guide may also be helpful to those that use ssds, where the size/price ratio, is incredibly small.

Once all the drivers for my hardware has been found, I rarely need to install drivers. Anyway, windows IME, easily finds most drivers online, for new hardware.

The taking ownership process, can be reversed, so that after all changes have been made, your windows directory can still be protected. I will add this in later on today if I have enough time. I suggested logging in as administrator, just to ensure that security priviliges were not an issue, ie. when accessing an elevated command prompt. Lastly, what I was referring to was a batch file courtesy of mydigitallife, described as:

thanks crash, i've added your tip.

 

No problem

 

Those multiple language files/folders are liberally sprinkled throughout the filesystem. Once upon a time, early on in my use of Vista, I removed almost all of them ... then did something horribly wrong and had to reinstall Vista.

It really should be possible to get rid of all that superfluous debris, but at this time I simply live with it.

 

I only did a few of these, deleting wallpapers, sample pictures, and the SP1 leftover files. And I went from 10.1GB remaining to 11GB remaining. Not too bad at all. Gives me another game or two to install on this baby! Thanks for the tips!

Oh, and I didn't use that TakeOwnership thing... Registry is cluttered as is. Everything that I cleared can just be done with administrator privileges. I kept the rest of the files just in case... they're not there for nothing. =)

 

Jisaac, I ran the script cleaner your hosting. I purposely did it without taking ownership just to see what it was deleting. It didn't get very far because the OS kept denying access to those files.

How much space do you save by running the script cleaner?

 

Using the script cleaner i saved about 50mb. Not much, but you've got nothing to lose
lets have some more people using this guide handy for those with space-limited SSDs.

 

I though you could go in Disk Cleanup to remove that. There's like a Old Vista version or something that takes few GBs.

 

IMO, it just doesn't seem worth it to do the guide unless you really need that extra gig or so.


lol

 

Sorry wrong thread.

 

great tips

 

Can you post instructions on how to reverse the take ownership process on the windows folder?

 

I would advise that %SystemDrive%\Windows\Installer is left alone.

Even if you don't want to uninstall a program, its .msi file is sometimes required in order to perform an update which most of us want to do since updates are usually usefull.