[winxp] GUIDE: Making your windows folder smaller!

By NeoMayhem
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Bold_Fortune

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Thanks, McGazza?. It makes it fun when someone says that.

A Letter To Members and Visitors To My Site

Dear Members and Visitors,

You may have noticed over the past couple of days there have been a lot of changes made to the site. Many threads and posts were removed. I should explain this to you.

I showed up on the site the other day and found a complete mess of things. Many forum categories and complete threads had been removed. Many posts within many of the threads themselves had been removed.

My Administrator account had been deleted. All smilie faces had been removed. All avatars. All the themes for the site.

I immediately set about to straighten out the mess. It has taken me these past two days to finally bring things back to order.

Because so many forum categories, complete threads, so many posts within many of the threads themselves, had been removed, I found it necessary to remove other threads and posts. These would have no longer made any sense to anyone reading them...because they were related to those that had already been removed.

I had to also go into each and every post by members to remove the traces of the previous smilies.

What was left instead of the actually smilie faces were the codes for the smilies only; i.e., :bouncy-thing: or :hippity-hop: And that sure looked like a mess. So if you notice your smilies are missing from your prior posts, this is why.

Jan was gracious enough to remake the theme she had been working on for the site that was lost (the one you are now looking at). She also made sure to put back some smilies that we can now again use in our posts. (Thank you, Jan.)

Anyway, when Sadie shows up, I will ask her how I can get into the server so that I may begin backing up the site...assuring us that should something like this ever happen again the site can be easily restored.

I'm sorry I did not know how to backup the site from the server before. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

http://hollow-refuge.net/Bold/index.php?si...d39def95bf89b37

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Bold_Fortune

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Completely Revamped!

Slimming Down Windows XP: The Complete Guide.

You're going to like this. I've been secretly working on this awhile...and now it is finally ready!

Now in perfect order! Broken down into sections for step-by-step file and folder deleting.

PART 1....Documents and Settings

PART 2....Program Files

PART 3....WINDOWS

PART 4....system32

PART 5....Using XPLite

PART 6....Individual system32 Files and Their Definitions

PART 7....NLS Files and Keyboard Layout Files

PART 8....TEMP and Junk files

PART 9....Miscellaneous...An Ongoing Work In Progress. (I will continue to add new files and folders to it.)

You will find it in these nine separate and distinct parts here...

http://www.hollow-refuge.net/Bold/viewtopic.php?t=229

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ThisSiteHasLostItsCharm

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i'm using xplite to remove stuff as I find that easier, I'd like to know if the following are either not safe or safe to remove;

COM+ (would xp stop working if I remove this? i have the dtc,com services disabled already with no side effects)

Terminal Services

Webclient

Telephony

Error Reporting Service

Distributed Link Tracking Client

System Restore (don't use it anyway)

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Bold_Fortune

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UPDATE: NOW WITH 11 PARTS! Included now are DISABLED SERVICES and UNNECESSARY DRIVERS.

Completely Revamped!

Slimming Down Windows XP: The Complete Guide.

You're going to like this. I've been quietly working on this awhile...and now it is finally ready!

Now in perfect order! Broken down into sections for step-by-step file and folder deleting.

UPDATE: NOW WITH 11 PARTS! Included now are DISABLED SERVICES and UNNECESSARY DRIVERS.

PART 1....Documents and Settings

PART 2....Program Files

PART 3....WINDOWS

PART 4....system32

PART 5....Using XPLite

PART 6....Individual system32 Files and Their Definitions

PART 7....NLS Files and Keyboard Layout Files

PART 8....TEMP and Junk files

PART 9....Disabled Services

PART 10...Unnecessary Drivers

PART 11...Miscellaneous...An Ongoing Work In Progress

PART 11 of my Slimming Down Windows XP Guide is an ongoing work in progress. I will continue to add new files and folders to it.

http://www.hollow-refuge.net/Bold/viewtopic.php?t=229

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Bold_Fortune

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ok your guide pretty much answerd my questions, looking better all the time, keep it up. you can never have too much free space :p

585454016[/snapback]

I'm glad, RanCorX2. I should have given you this link. It makes it much easier for someone with a question like yours about specific files to locate them. It's much easier than searching through the entire guide.

You'll see what I mean...

http://www.hollow-refuge.net/Bold/viewforu...25b2bf97010ac05

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Bold_Fortune

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Posted (edited)

Completely Revamped!

Slimming Down Windows XP: The Complete Guide.

You're going to like this. I've been quietly working on this awhile...and now it is finally ready!

Now in perfect order! Broken down into sections for step-by-step file and folder deleting.

UPDATE: NOW WITH 11 PARTS! Included now are DISABLED SERVICES and UNNECESSARY DRIVERS.

PART 1....Documents and Settings

PART 2....Program Files

PART 3....WINDOWS

PART 4....system32

PART 5....Using XPLite

PART 6....Individual system32 Files and Their Definitions

PART 7....NLS Files and Keyboard Layout Files

PART 8....TEMP and Junk files

PART 9....Disabled Services

PART 10...Unnecessary Drivers

PART 11...Miscellaneous...An Ongoing Work In Progress

PART 11 of my Slimming Down Windows XP Guide is an ongoing work in progress. I will continue to add new files and folders to it.

http://www.hollow-refuge.net/Bold/viewtopic.php?t=229

Edited by Bold_Fortune
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Grand Master

ThisSiteHasLostItsCharm

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Posted

I've been readin more of your guides, sofar i got my windows folder down from 976mb to 856mb and I just at this moment or 5mins agao :p disabled the winmgt service (aint removed it yet) and i got more free mem on the reboot of xp and no stupid event viewer probs like in sp1.

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Enthusiast

ross240

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Posted

nice forum here!

by the way i think that longhorn transformation pack automatically removes the files in dllcache.

also u can do a lot good to system performance by deleting the unwanted fonts in fonts folder, such as bold-italic, and the logfiles in windows folder.

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Grand Master

Hypoxiaicon

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I'm not sure if this was because of this, But since I removed some files as mentioned in this guide the following has happened.

My Boot up.. (XP Loading screen) is fairly fast... Just when the desktop appears its really slow and getting ready and the HD is really busy.

I only have 2 start-up items (Symantec AV) So this shouldn't be happening.

Unless it was just a general Windows Slow Down...

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spyglass

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Bold:

Found this little 30 day trail software that among other things finds empty folders to delete.

Ace Optimizer/Miscellaneous/Find Empty Folder/Scan/right click-check all/delete

http://www.acelogix.com/

Also ive used tuneup 2004 (also 30 day trial) to cleanup registry after deleteing items. (its very good)

http://www.tune-up.com/

ps: i know you dont like idea of posting your former patch files,but would it be possible to pm you for them? (i have xp norton ghost image on single cd,so no big deal if they mess things up...10 min reinstall i can handle)

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Bold_Fortune

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Bold:

i know you dont like idea of posting your former patch files,but would it be possible to pm you for them?  (i have xp norton ghost image on single cd,so no big deal if they mess things up...10 min reinstall i can handle)

585580479[/snapback]

spyglass, I'm sorry. I don't give out my system32 batch files anymore.

Too many people were not reading my instructions and warnings carefully about certain files.

I just got tired of people seeming to think that what works for me will automatically work for them.

If you want to make one for yourself, and want to pick which Individual system32 Files you want to remove with it, I'll start you out with the command part of the my batch files script, and then you can add any, or as many, Individual system32 Files as you see fit.

I have incorporated a failsafe feature I into my system32 batch file...

The files will be moved and saved (not deleted permanately...later that will be up to you.) to a backup folder on C:\ . The backup folder is simply named, Backup.

Within the Backup folder you'll notice what I call "smart placement" of subfolders, identical to how they look in XP. First you'll see a WINDOWS folder, and inside that you'll see a system32 folder.

I did this "smart placement" of folders and their files for you, so you would always know exactly where they came from should you decide to replace some, or all of them to their original location.

Oh, be sure to Temporarily delete the Backup Folder filled with files before using any registry cleaner ...the cleaner will most likley correct the files paths to the Backup folder rather than delete the path.

-------------------------------------------------

IF NOT EXIST "c:\backup\WINDOWS\system32" md c:\backup\WINDOWS\system32

MOVE c:\WINDOWS\system32\6to4svc.dll c:\backup\WINDOWS\system32\

MOVE c:\WINDOWS\system32\aaaamon.dll c:\backup\WINDOWS\system32\

MOVE c:\WINDOWS\system32\acledit.dll c:\backup\WINDOWS\system32\

MOVE c:\WINDOWS\system32\admparse.dll c:\backup\WINDOWS\system32\

-------------------------------------------------

You can look here under PART 8a & PART 8b of my Slimming Down Windows XP: The Complete Guide for the definitions of Individual system32 Files I remove from my system...

http://www.hollow-refuge.net/Bold/viewforum.php?f=13

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Bold_Fortune

Posted
Posted

My Slimming Down Windows XP Guide is finally completed. (Whew.)

I'm down to 701 Individual Files within my system32 folder. This includes 501 DLL and 88 EXE Files. (The weird part is, everything I use on my system still works...without errors even.)

I don't think I can do much better than this. Maybe if I keep scouring I might be able to find a file here and there to delete. Maybe not. Either way...I'm backing away from my computer for awhile.

I hope some of you find the guide useful.

To me, deleting files was always "just something to do." I didn't do it for any additional performance gain (I may or may not have achieved from it). It was always just something to do, and something I enjoyed doing.

What you will find in this Guide are the "possibilities" of which files and which folders can be removed from a Windows XP Installation while still maintaining functionality.

The "possibilities" of what can be removed. That's very important to keep in mind before proceeding from here.

I would not, and could not, expect anyone other than myself to remove everything listed here. It would practically be impossible for you to duplicate what I do without running into problems.

Yes, I delete every file and every folder you will see here...but my system is different from yours. My computing needs are different from yours. The programs I have installed are different from yours.

Therefore consider my Slimming Down Windows XP: The Complete Guide, a "Guide of Possibilities", if you will.

Choose wisely for yourselves which files and folders to remove from your own Windows XP Installations. I have given you as much information about these files and folders as I could within the limits of what I know about them and my understanding of their uses and functions.

Good Luck. And have fun with your computers...however you choose to use them.

Bold

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Neowinian

bobdobbs_5

Posted
Posted

I just wanted to say that, although the guide is great and it saved me a lot of room, I started getting the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH shortly after taking the advice. Oh, well. Proceed at your own risk.

Good think I backed everything up first.

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mr_demilord

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Posted

damn u guys make me laugh, why would you wanna do this? you payed for xp and brake it down, why dont you guys use windows 1.0, it makes no sence, or do you guys run windows on a 133mhz 4 mb ram and 100 MB harddrive.

this is really funny hahaha

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yanowhiz

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Awsome, really saved me some hard drive space. Went from having like 8gigs free to 10gigs. :)

I can't believe Windows is wasteful like this: :angry: of course what would you expect from the largest company that could careless about the customer

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yanowhiz

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I just did the first steps (before it says CAUTION) and now I can't install my printers, it says something about trying to find a *.INF I guess I'll have to do a system restore :cry: :blush:

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Bold_Fortune

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:huh: You'd think "CAUTION" would be a given...lol.

Print Spooler

I do not have a printer, so I remove every system32 file associated with the printing process.

I delete these 19 files from C:\WINDOWS\system32:

I try to highlight some of the important stuff.

Here's an updated link. I tried posting the complete guide in the Guides Section of Neowin...but being that it is in 10 PARTS, I can't update it there. (In the Guides Section you can only update the very first post.)

So, folks should check in periodically for changes to my guide. Here...

http://www.hollow-refuge.net/Bold/viewtopic.php?t=229

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Bold_Fortune

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Posted

"Well, that's all good and well. But I'm not interested in taking on the potential problems that can come about from removing important files from my XP installation.

Can't you please just tell me what files are "perfectly safe" and "harmless" to remove?

I just want to remove some clutter, and maybe in the process, gain just a little space on my hardrive without having to worry about running into problems down the road.

I know removing the "Help" files is okay...but what else can I SAFELY

remove?" ...he said.

I put up a new post, "Perfectly Safe To Remove Files and Folders," for those people who ask me this question....

http://www.hollow-refuge.net/Bold/viewtopic.php?t=387

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