- Open the File Explorer and go to ‘This PC.’
- From the newly appeared options, locate ‘Local Disk (C:/),’ right-click on it and select ‘Properties.’
- Go to the ‘Security’ tab and then click on the ‘Advanced’ tab (at the bottom-right) for opening the ‘Special permissions.’
- Now on the newly appeared ‘Advanced security setting for local disk (C:/)’ window, click on the option ‘Change.’ (You can find it the top left of the page).
- Here enter the object name that you use for running a Windows machine.
- Now click ‘Check names’ followed by OK and then ‘Apply.’
- Here you would require to check whether you have taken ownership of this object. For doing so, close and then again open the object’s properties before you finally view or change permissions.
- Click on ‘Edit’ and then ‘Add.’ Here again, enter object name that you use for running Windows.
- Click on the ‘Check names’ option.
- Here select the ‘Account,’ allow full control permission, and then click on Yes for changing permission settings on system folders.
- Click on Apply > OK and then close all of the open windows.
- Lastly, delete the old files to free up disk space on the Windows server.
Once done, you can check whether the disk space is cleared and the size of WinSxs is reduced or not.
METHOD 3: Use DISM for reducing the Disk Size
The ‘Deployment Image Servicing and Management’ or DISM is a useful component that can reduce the disk size of WinSxS.
Note: Remember that you might not be able to uninstall any updates and existing service packs after the 2nd command is completed.
- From the Windows search bar, type and open ‘Command prompt’ by selecting ‘Run as administrator.’ (Opening this tool with administrator’s access is mandatory).
- Now on the command prompt window, type the following command, and press Enter.
dism.exe /Online /Clean-up Image /StartComponentCleanup
- Once done, type the following command and press Enter. This command will remove all superseded versions of every component in the store.
dism.exe /Online /Clean-up Image / StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
- Finally, restart your computer and check whether the Disk size is reduced and space is cleared or not.
WinSxS directory is a folder that keeps growing with every windows update and ends up consuming a lot of disk space of your system. As this is a non-avoidable process, hence one cannot control the file and link build upon the Windows server.
By the end of this article, we hope you have got enough answers for your queries regarding loaded up WinSxS directory. These were the tried and tested methods that will help you to reduce the size of the WinSxS directory and free up disk space on the Windows server. If you have any queries or feedback, please write down the comment in the below comment box.
