Reduce windows 7 size on disk?

I'm thinking of getting a SSD but I wouldn't be able to afford one as large as 256. Using 128GB of space would be really difficult coming from a 320GB drive. How can I reduce the size of Windows 7? Are there any parts I can cut out?

 

Well, you can use software, like RT 7 Lite, to reduce the installation size of Windows 7.

Before creating your preset, check out this thread: Components To Keep. Be warned that it takes some time to create a perfect preset that will produce a slimmed version of Windows 7 that still has enough functionalities to fulfill your needs.

There is a poster in Alienware subforum, named faiz23, who managed to create a slimmed Windows 7 to be installed in SSD. Check the guide: Windows 7 optimized SSD install 5.5gb install guide.

Hope this helps.

 

5.5gb install sounds pretty great. I'm trying to free up as much space as possible.

 

Well, there is a risk of reducing the size of Windows 7 way too excessively, as you may encounter dependency problem.

I mean, in a ultra-slimmed Windows 7, you may not be able to install certain software or games. If they do install fine, sometimes they may encounter error, because certain components, required for proper functioning of the software, is removed by the user via RT 7 Lite.

My advice is: Start with conservative preset first, one that removes a few components. Install this customized image into your computer, and then install all games and software just as before. Test whether all of them work. If not, try to modify the preset to remove less components. If they do, it means that the preset works fine.

Once you are satisfied with this preset, try to use a more aggressive preset, that removes more components, and test it again in your computer. Keeps on doing it until some of your applications do not work anymore. Revert back to your previous preset and that is your sweet spot. You have to experiment with it, as each people will have their own distinctive needs. Keep on trying, and you will find your sweet spot.

Happy testing.

 

Well I mostly meant removing useless info like language packs or whatever. I know you could do a lot in XP with that.

Thanks.

 

Yes, I see your point. You should also remove Natural Language. The rest is really up to you.

Once it works, post your installation size here. For your information, I am also using slimmed-down version of Windows 7 SP1 in my laptop.

 

so you might trough hackering reduce 1gb of those 128gb ssd. that brings you about 1% free space. which is about nothing. if you need that 1gb of space, then you have chosen an ssd that is too small.

other than that, if you disable system restore, the os should stay fairly tiny anyways. i use win7 on 32gb and 40gb ssds since over a year with no problem.

 

Disabling pagefile (if you have sufficient RAM) and hibernation (if you prefer "sleep") also helps.

 

right, forgot about those two.

i would NOT modify the os outside of what the os supports. win7 is an image based system, so it has the full system image all time intact. the result: flexibility in the update routine, enabling and disabling systems, compatibility etc.

better don't mess with this. the installation should eat at most 7 or 8gb, so you still have >100gb for apps and data.

 

no need for perfect disk, win7 can do it's own boot defrag (don't ask me how right now, someone has a link on here).

can't agree on 3 and 4, had issues before with those. not being able to install an office service pack as it didn't find the msocache, having problems with windows updates, too.

temp folders and download folders will grow over time again anyways => not really useful to clean them as they will grow again and actually clean themselves.


agreed on 6 and 7.

after installing service pack 1, one can clean up everything pre-sp1. that helps. option 1 and 2 from here windows-7-sp1-disk-cleanup-tool.html

 

great for you. i've seen it not working with removed msocache. i worked with microsoft in such cases (in case of the windows updates that where deleted that is), and it's sometimes nearly irreparable.

i'm glad you clean your tempfolders for no real gain. so you get 0.001% to 0.1% of your diskspace? amazing. no, not even worth 5 seconds.

 

Guys, I believe that both of you have your own valid argument, thus your opinion are correct in a certain way. If you two cannot agree on this matter, let's agree to disagree. Each of us has his own ways of configurating his computer to provide optimal performance. Okay?

MSOCACHE can be deleted without affecting the ability to install Microsoft Office updates. In my opinion, this folder is needed if you intend to perform "Repair" installation and you do not have the original Microsoft Office installation files conveniently with you. As for me, I will always download the Microsoft Office updates through Microsoft Download Center, rather than using Windows Updates. That way, I would not have to use Windows Updates to download updates again, each time I perform format and a clean install of Windows.

I also agree in deleting the temp folder, albeit in monthly basis. It is meant to speed up frequently-used processes. If the content folder is deleted daily, it will defeat the purpose of speeding up the processes. Then again, if you do not delete the content of the folder once in a while, the folder may contain files related to software you will never use in the future. Accumulation of such files may slow down Windows. Thus, it is appropriate to clear its content, but you should not overdo it.

 

accumulation of temp files does not slow down windows, typical myth.

and deleting of files that it might re-use for caching purposes will actually slow it down.

 

Best way to save space is if you don't need hibernation, turn it off:
- elevated command prompt type: powercfg -h off

Manually set your pagefile to min 256MB max 1024MB. If you have 4GB you probably don't even need a pagefile, but better to have it to prevent system lockup or error.

Also make note of the C:\Windows\winsxs folder. It will seem to grow over time, but most of it are just system created symlinks so it is actually only using a fraction of the space that's reported.

Other than that, I wouldn't mess with much else, you can cause too many issues. Windows 7 64-bit fresh install is only about 8GB.

 

You can lower your shadow storage space and gain tens of GBs. It is completely safe.

In my case I lowered it from 36GB on a 320 GB disk down to 6 GB and never had any problems.

On my SSD 80GB I lowered it down from 12GB to just 4GB and have no issues whatsoever.

Read this: How to adjust disk space in Windows Vista:

1. So run cmd as an administrator,
2. enter "vssadmin list shadowstorage" and check the numbers on your SSD volume. They are usualy around 15% of the disk size. In your case It should be around 15GB?

3. enter "vssadmin resize shadowstorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=XXXGB" where XXX is a desired number. On a 80GB SSD I have 4GB because I want many restore points, but it worked with 1GB too.
You cannot change /On: to some other volume (only on a server edition), but this way you can save tens of GBs.

You will lose all your restore points, but depending on the amount of GB you allowed, they will be created from this point on.

You can always resize your shadow storage in case you need extra restore points.

Other big savers are:
Hibernate off (it will save you the size of your ram on c
Page file set manually to some small number (I use 128MB only) - and had no issues ever. I have 4GB ram. It is not recommended to turn it off completely.

So with other savers (temps, moving video and music to my secondary disk etc...) I think I gained like 20GB on my 80GB SSD. Not bad.

Cheers

 

oh yeah, forgot to mention restore points / shadow storage too. I just set mine to 1% with the slider, no need really to use the vssadmin command unless you really want to go quite small. On a 64GB SSD that's only ~ 600MB of restore points. You can actually turn it off altogether, but best to at least leave a few hundred MB for a few restore points in case you do botch things up at some point.

 

Guys, I have complied a complete guide of using RT 7 Lite in another subforum, named: Create A Customized Windows Installation DVD For More Responsive Windows. It will reduce the Windows installation size and makes Windows more responsive.

You can post your comment here or in that thread. Any feedback is very much appreciated. Thanks.