Active5 years, 11 months ago
After a lot of trial and error (mostly due to lack of documentation and examples) I have managed to create MSI installers that install custom DLLs to WinSxS as side-by-side assembly. There is only one problem: Uninstalling leaves all files (DLLs, manifests and catalogs) in the WinSxS directory. How can or should I best clean that up? I know for sure that nothing else references it.
The path to the folders are C: Windows winsxs Temp PendingRenames and C: Windows winsxs Temp PendingDeletes. 0 This topic has been locked by an administrator and is no longer open for commenting. How can I uninstall Win32 assemblies and cleanup WinSxS? Ask Question 11. Windows winsxs Temp PendingDeletes.' Folder, as this is where files are moved by windows update or an installer moves them to - the scavenger just deletes the files in here. Share| improve this answer.
I have read somewhere that WinSxS has a self-scavenging process that cleans up over time but I could not find more information about that. Can you manually invoke this to clean up stuff?
Folder in C: Windows winsxs Temp PendingDeletes contains 16 files from Jan 10 & 11 that simply do not delete, I have tried the popular remedies ie: install something like Telnet which starts Trusted Installer which in theory should start scavenge process. Jul 28, 2008 It seems to me that both computer don't do any problems, but today I found some files under the ' Windows winsxs Temp PendingDeletes' and ' Windows winsxs Temp PendingRename' Folder. I know that the Update service uses this folder and during reboot the files.
The only other way I see is manually deleting those bits. First you have to change the owner of all files (assembly, catalog, manifest and their respective directory) from SYSTEM to an administrator account, adjust the permissions and delete them. There are also pieces left in the registry (I think HKLMCOMPONENTSDerivedDataComponents may be one place), but since WinSxS should be treated as opaque it is hard to find any information.
starblue46.4k1111 gold badges7979 silver badges139139 bronze badges
gixgix4,48955 gold badges2929 silver badges4040 bronze badges
6 Answers
Scavenging isn't exposed anywhere that I know of. I'm not even sure when it is kicked off automatically. Maybe on uninstall of a service pack? Maybe some tool admins can run? I really forget.
Anyway, my suggestion is don't fight it. There are so many twisty turns down there that it just isn't worth trying to get the disk space back. Once uninstalled the bits still in the SxS cache will not be activated so they are just wasting space.
It's a dumb design but blame Microsoft and don't try to overcompensate.
Rob MenschingRob Mensching
Windows 7 Winsxs Folder Cleanup
29.9k33 gold badges7474 silver badges118118 bronze badges
Here is an article, it's kinda complete guide to WinSxS.
So, shortly, you can only uninstall some components (all their versions are in this folder), and you can run Service Pack bridge burning utility (in Vista it is named VSP1CLN.EXE and shipped with SP1). Note, that after execution, you shouldn't be able to uninstall SP or any components to state, prior to SP release date.
Maxim PopravkoMaxim Popravko2,61122 gold badges2525 silver badges3939 bronze badges
No-one is convinced you can - short of a complete reinstall, your bloaty WinSxS directory is there to stay.
There's been a long 'discussion' of the problem on technet.
There is no documentation of the format, or any instructions how to remove files that are no longer needed - MS seems to think that disc space is cheap. There is a self-scavenging feature, but no-one's convinced it works, or if it does, it is very conservative (as you'd hope as you don't want it to break your OS)
You can tell is the scavenger is working by checking the 'C:WindowswinsxsTempPendingDeletes.' folder, as this is where files are moved by windows update or an installer moves them to - the scavenger just deletes the files in here.
gbjbaanbgbjbaanb46.4k1010 gold badges9191 silver badges139139 bronze badges
Datagridview end edit on enter key. You'll notice that after you uninstall your assembly, while the files are still there, they can no longer be bound to - so they are just 'staged', or cached, but not really installed.
Rob & gbjbaanb are correct - you cannot manually invoke a scavenge yourself. Don't try to delete the files yourself - there are multiple places in the registry where they are registered, DerivedDataComponents being only one of the many references.
I think the rule for Vista is scavenging is kicked off by the TrustedInstaller service after 10 minutes of machine inactivity, after the last servicing operation (service pack, hotfix, etc). But it's very fickle, so it doesn't run as often as it should. So just be patient, and the files will disappear on their own.
Eugene TalagrandEugene Talagrand2,07611 gold badge1313 silver badges1616 bronze badges
Well i was having some issues as i have an 80GB SSD for my windows and the WinSxs folder was about 12gb's
I was searching the net and i found this command:
DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /spsuperseded
And now my WinSxs is 7gb which was wonderful news.
GabrielGabriel
There are a few updates regarding the cleanup method that apply to newer OS. Check http://www.karafilis.net/winsxs-cleanup
Lefteris KarafilisLefteris Karafilis
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged assemblieswixwindows-installeruninstallwinsxs or ask your own question.
Active11 months ago
Both, the PendingDeletes and the PendingRenames folder within the windows temp folder are about 1GB in size. Is there any save way to empty or delete those folders?
C:WindowsWinSxS >10GBC:WindowsWinSxSTempPendingDeletes 800MBC:WindowsWinSxSTempPendingRenames 210MB
I have no pending installation. My operating system is Windows8.1 Is there any way to cleanup the WinSxS folder as a whole? I already used the clean-up utility when right clicking the disk. But did not change much!
Thanks in advance
MatthiasMatthias
1 Answer
The safe way to clean up WinSxS is with Windows' Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM). Running the following in an elevated CMD prompt should theoretically remove some of the excess baggage: Film saint seiya movie 5 heaven chapter sub indo.
DISM /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
However, for that task to complete, TrustedInstaller must be running, which is not set up in Windows 8 by default. To run TrustedInstaller, you may need to first enable TelnetServer, then enter
net start TrustedInstaller
C Windows Winsxs Temp Pendingrenames
After DISM runs successfully (on my PC, I found that DISM worked only when Windows was started in Safe Mode), you may want to disableTelnetServer and stop TrustedInstaller.
After all this folderol, you may find only a modest reduction in the size of WinSxS. In my case, it was reduced from ~10 GB to ~7 GB. sigh.
[It is a great deal easier to use Janitor to clean up old Linux installations and updates, aka 'cruff', but Windows is not Linux.]
DrMoishe PippikDrMoishe Pippik11.7k44 gold badges1717 silver badges3636 bronze badges