What are some tips on reducing the disk space used by Windows 7?

Does anyone have any tips on reducing the space used by Windows 7? So far I've got:

Empty Recycle Bin
Run Disk Cleanup Wizard
Use 'Programs & Features' control panel to uninstall unneeded components

However even after all that, my Windows directory is taking up 12GB. I found this other question, but that would require me to hack the windows installation disk and then reinstall my OS from scratch, which I'd like to avoid if possible.

Edit: Reason for this question: I already have a spare drive where I store non-essential stuff, but my main C: drive is a small expensive SSD, so the more space I can clear on there, the better. I already run WinDirStat to find stuff in my home folder, and which apps in Program Files are taking up too much space, this question is specifically for reducing the 12 GB in C:\Windows.

davr

Posted 2010-02-11T02:55:56.733

Reputation: 4 809

– Ross Rogers – 2012-08-16T16:12:09.140

Answers

Install and frequently run ccleaner. Defragment your disk (which is probably the biggest). And lastly (if you can), just buy a terabyte external hdd, they are about a 100 bucks and you never have to worry about disk space again :)

user27870

Posted 2010-02-11T02:55:56.733

Reputation:

1I doubt defragmenting will free up any space, doesn't it just move things around? Also I have a very expensive intel SSD as my main drive plus an inexpensive secondary drive. The more useful stuff I can fit on my main drive the better. I'll try CCleaner though and see if that helps, thanks for that – davr – 2010-02-11T03:01:17.300

Defragmenting does free up space, I am not feeling particularly articulate right now so I won't attempt to expalin why, but it does. Look at your present free space, defragment and look again. There will be more of it. – None – 2010-02-11T03:07:00.313

2There is little reason to spend time frequently defragging an SSD. – phoebus – 2010-02-11T07:38:03.467

This question may provide some insight as to what is taking up all that space on your computer.

Apart from deleting what you have already, you could also try running CCleaner on your system to clean any unnecessary files from your system. Apart from this, there isnt really much you can do to clean out your system folders.

You could however try and remove files from your home folder. I would suggest going through your 'Downloads' folder (if you have one) and deleting anything you don't need any more. I know on my system I tend to hoard lots of files. Last time I looked at mine, it was coming in at 10 GB.

As well, you could purchase an external hard drive and store lots of your media on that. 1 TB drives are cheap these days, and you could store your entire media collection on them, which, depending on how much music and videos you have, could free up another 10GB.

Josh Hunt

Posted 2010-02-11T02:55:56.733

Reputation: 20 095

So far my winsxs is only 6GB, not as bad as on Vista where some people report over 20GB!! – davr – 2010-02-11T04:28:50.830