Reduce size of installed Vista

The suggestions below include several not system critical files that can be safely deleted and removed from Vista without causing instability.

%SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

The directory stores backup copy of the built-in drivers in Windows Vista. You probably won’t need most of the drivers, unless you plan to install new hardware. Even if there is new hardware, it should comes with a Vista-compliant driver. So the folder can be removed. Depending on which edition of your Vista, deleting “FileRepository” folder can reclaim at least 1 GB of disk space,

To delete “FileRepository” directory, users must first take ownership and grant full control permissions to users’ account for the directories and all sub-folders recursively. Use Take Ownership in right click menu to easily do the task.

%SystemDrive%\Boot

“Boot” folder stores Windows Vista boot screen for different language editions. If you’re using only a single language of Vista, such as “en-US” (for American English) or “de-DE” (for German) or another other localized langauge, the others not in use can be removed to save about 13.3 MB disk space.

To remove “Boot” folder, users also required to claim ownership and assume full control access on the directory and all its subdirectories as per instruction above.

%SystemDrive%\perflogs\System\Diagnostics

“perflogs” folder is created by Performance Information and Tools, and Reliability and Performance Monitor that tests and measures Vista system score rating and performance to save the recorded files. The data is saved in “perflogs\System\Diagnostics” according to folders named by date. If you no longer need the performance data, delete the folder. Vista will slim down by about 10 MB.

%SystemDrive%\Windows\Downloaded Installations

Some programs such as Adobe (Macromedia) Dreamweaver will extract and unpack the setup files into this folder during installation. After installed, the files are unused and can be erased.

%SystemDrive%\ProgramData

Some installers such as iTunes will unpack and extract setup files to this directory, which can safely removed. In the example, iTunes will C:\ProgramData\Apple Computer\Installer Cache\iTunes which stores installation files. However, note that most files and folders here are needed for proper execution of applications. So delete with care.

%SystemDrive%\Windows\Help

Not really recommended, but if you feel that you already master Vista, and really running out of disk space acutely, removing the Help files will free up around 105 MB space.

%SystemDrive%\Windows\IME

Input Method Editor (IME) provides a way for users to type and enter text in Windows system. If you have installed a few IMEs, but no longer use them, delete the correct corresponding folders to free disk space. Warning though, it’s hard to determine which folder should match with which IME, and any wrong deletion will render system unstable. Each IME may takes up tens of megabytes.

%SystemDrive%\Windows\Installer

The uninstallation programs for installed programs are stored here. If you confirm and sure that yuo won’t uninstall a program after installation, it’s possible to remove the uninstaller for the program. Depending on the number of apps installed, the storage space recovered can add up hundreds of MB.

%SystemDrive%\Windows\Web\Wallpaper

The free wallpaper graphics and images that come packaged with Vista. Remove and delete or move the unused or not needed wallpapers to another drive. Mind you, the wallpapers are high resolution and big in size. Deleting all of them will free up 45 MB.

%SystemDrive%\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads

The contents inside “SoftwareDistribution” folder are record date about the system updates installed, and cannot be removed or deleted. However, it’s possible to delete files inside “Downloads” folder which are the source setup files downloaded.

%SystemDrive%\Users\Public

The public document folders for all users. Vista populates the public folders with several media files such as pictures and videos of about 220 MB in size, which can be deleted if not used. For example, “C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\Sample Media” folder is the sample recorded video clips of Windows Media Center and eats up 143 MB disk space, while “C:\Users\Public\Music\Sample Music” contains 59 MB of free .wma music, “C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures” has about 5 MB of sample photos, and “C:\Users\Public\Videos” has about 10 MB of sample videos.

Take Ownership with right click menu.

To make take ownership and grant full access rights to files and folders easiest, users can add a new option on the contextual right click menu of files and folders, so that whenever users want to take ownership of files of folders, the process can be done by just right click on the file or selection of files, and then one click on Take Ownership menu item. To add and put this addition Take Ownership command into the right click menu of files and directories, simply download the TakeOwnership.reg and then double click on the TakeOwnership.reg to merge the values to the registry. If User Account Control dialog pops up, click on “Continue” button.

Download here

 

Language Pack Debris on Vista Home Premium
When I run lpksetup.exe /u it only comes back with one language, which is OK; however, scattered throughout the Vista file system there are dozens of other languages. For example, searching the drive for *ja-JP* locates 125 files+folders. And, as I said, this is but one of dozens of them. With dozens of languages, each creating 125 files+folders, that is a significant disk space footprint.

Are these really necessary? Is this standard Windows Vista Home Premium, or it debris resulting from having bought an HP?

If lpksetup.exe does not recognize them as MUI, how can I clear them out?

That is just one example, they are also in a lot of other places, too. All with date stamps before I got the PC, so they obviously came on the HP build. In addition to en-US, this it what is strewn throughout the file system:

ar-SA
bg-BG
cs-CZ
da-DK
de-DE
el-GR
en-gb
es-ES
et-EE
fi-FI
fr-FR
he-IL
hr-HR
hu-HU
it-IT
ja-JP
ko-KR
lt-LT
lv-LV
nb-NO
nl-NL
pl-PL
pt-BR
pt-PT
ro-RO
ru-RU
sk-SK
sl-SI
sr-Latn-CS
sv-SE
th-TH
tr-TR
uk-UA
zh-CN
zh-HK
zh-TW

Still, how do I get rid of them and recover the space? They're too entrenched in the OS to simply delete without damaging the OS, and I'm not yet prepared to do a clean install (which, of course, is the correct
solution). Any ideas?

 

Just check theres none other installed. You could of installed it with just one but Windows Update downloads all. I will check if it safe. Are these to the addition to the ones in the hidden Boot folder?

Click Start Start button , and then click Control Panel.
In Control Panel, click Regional and Language Options, and then click Change display language.
On the Keyboard and Languages tab, click Install/uninstall languages under Display language. User Account Control permission If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.
In Choose to install or remove languages, click Remove languages.
Under Select the languages that you want to remove, select the language that you want to remove, and then click Next.
Click the language that you want to remove, and then click Remove.

 

It's always best to delete unnecessary files etc. before installation. Use vLite, it's superb. Of course you can use some well know modified release like TinyVista by eXPerience. I have used his MicroXP so long and after I got Vista license I install TinyVista too. Just change your license code so everything is legal.

Code:

Windows TinyVista Rev01
 -----------------------

 Vista Edition --------------> Ultimate
 Architecture ---------------> x86
 Install Type ---------------> Fully Unattended
 Product Key ----------------> Not Required
 Activation -----------------> Activated Offline, Upon Installation
 WINDOWS Folder Size --------> 2.34 GB
 ISO File Size --------------> 673 Mb
 Install Time (In VMware) ---> 12 Minutes

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

 Thank you for trying this cut down version of Windows Vista.

 To use this CD, simply burn the ISO file (as an image, not as data)
 with Nero or IMG Burn, then set your PC to boot from the CD, press
 any key when the message appears, then after Vista has loaded the
 files you will only get one screen where you can format your hard
 drive. Note that you cannot install this special eXPerience version
 of Windows by upgrading, you can only install a clean install onto
 a formatted partition or hard drive, because all the upgrade files
 are removed.

 MAKE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR HARD DISK OR PARTITION BEFORE FORMATTING!

 Once your partition or disk is formatted, simply click "Next" and
 that is all you have to do - Windows will install within 12 minutes
 all on its own, you do not have to touch anything.

 The install time of 12 minutes is timed in VMware, if you're
 installing from a real CD it might take longer. 

 Windows is activated upon installation and you do not need any
 product key.

 This special edition of Windows Vista is fully updated with all
 "Important" hotfixes to January 2008.

 This installation still includes:

 Aero Theme
 Camera support
 Fax support
 Internet Explorer 7
 Printer Support
 Remote Desktop (both server and client)
 Scanner support
 Windows Media Player 11
 Windows Mail (formerly Outlook Express)
 Windows Update website

 This is intended to be a functional installation with a lot of
 items removed which I personally class as useless. Please make
 absolutely certain that you check below to see which items are
 removed before jumping the gun and installing this special
 edition of Windows Vista! 

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

 REGISTRY TWEAKS
 ---------------

 This special edition of Windows Vista has over 100 registry tweaks
 to improve performance and your general use of Windows Vista. For
 example - User Account Control is completely removed, you have
 useful additions to your Computer icon like Services and Device
 Manager among other things, you have context menu additions added
 to files and folders like Take Ownership in one click, close the
 CD/DVD tray, Windows will tell you exactly what it is doing when
 it is shutting down or booting, the Start Menu is much better
 with useless items like "Search" and "Help and support" removed
 whilst other useful things are added like "Run" and "Administrative
 Tools", you can register DLL and OCX files by simply double clicking
 them, all the garbage is removed from the left side and bottom of
 Windows to give you more space in your folders, all Windows are set
 to Details View so you can see the file size etc. There are many
 more tweaks than this - check the Registry Tweaks text file in the
 eXPerience folder on the root of the CD for full details.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 REMOVED COMPONENTS (vLite was used to remove components)
 --------------------------------------------------------

 Many components are removed from this edition of Windows,
 this allows this Windows edition to fit on a 700Mb CD.

 All of the following components are removed:

 ACCESSORIES
 -----------
 Accessibility
 Mobility Center
 Speech Support
 Welcome Center
 Windows Sidebar and Gadgets

  DRIVERS
 -------
 Display adapters
 Diva Server
 Modems
 Printers (ALL)
 QLogic Fibre Channel Adapter
 Scanners
 
 GAMES
 -----
 Game Explorer
 Inbox Games
 Premium Inbox Games

 LANGUAGES
 ---------
 Japanese
 Korean
 Simplified Chinese
 Table Driven Text Input Processor
 Traditional Chinese
 
 MULTIMEDIA
 ----------
 Media Center
 Movie and DVD Maker
 Music and Video samples
 Sample Pictures
 Screensavers
 Shell event sounds
 SideShow
 Sound Recorder
 Wallpapers
 Windows Calendar
 
 NETWORK
 -------
 Connect to a Network Projector
 Internet Information Services (IIS)
 MSN Installer
 Windows Collaboration
 
 SERVICES
 --------
 Diagnostics
 Distributed Link Tracking Client
 Error Reporting
 IPsec Policy Agent
 Microsoft DFS Replication
 Offline Files
 Remote Registry
 Volume Shadow Copy
 Windows Remote Management
 Windows Search

 SYSTEM
 ------
 Beep
 BitLocker Drive Encryption
 Disk Defragmenter
 Disk Quota
 Help
 IMAPIv2 Burning Support
 Malicious Software Removal Tool (Re-Installed on first logon)
 Manual Install (Setup.exe)
 Microsoft Agent
 Natural Language
 Parental Controls
 Performance Counters
 Reliability and Performance Monitor
 Remote Differential Compression
 Run a legacy CPL elevated
 Security Center
 Sync Center
 System Restore
 Tablet PC
 User Account Control (UAC)
 Windows Backup
 Windows Defender
 Windows Easy Transfer
 Windows SAT (Performance Index)

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

 OPTIONS (using vLite)
 ---------------------
 DEP (Data Execution Prevention) = Disabled (AlwaysOff)
 User Account Control (UAC) = Disabled
 AntiSpyware Realtime Protection = Disabled
 AutoPlay = Enabled
 Paging Executive = Enabled
 Power scheme = Balanced
 Hibernation = Off
 Memory requirement = 256MB

 TWEAKS (using vLite)
 --------------------
 Control Panel - Classic View = Enabled
 Show hidden files and folders = Yes
 Show protected operating system files = Yes
 Show extensions for known file types = Yes
 IE Phishing Filter = Enabled
 IE Phishing Verification Balloon Tips = Disabled

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

 The Last "Session.ini" file for use with
 vLite is included in the eXPerience folder
 on the root of this CD.

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

 All "Important" Hotfixes are integrated (using vLite) or installed on
 first login. This brings Windows up to date up to January 2008.

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

 eXPerience DESKTOP FOLDER
 -------------------------

 When Windows is finished installing you will see a folder called
 "eXPerience" on your desktop. This folder contains the following:

 Comodo Firewall - Download and install this! Comodo Firewall Pro is
 the very best software firewall available. You might wonder why you
 would need a firewall since there already is a firewall in Vista,
 but Comodo firewall is far better than the standard "Windows Firewall"
 thats built into Vista.

 Desktop Icon Layout - These registry files let you add or remove two
 options on the right-click of your Recycle Bin: "Save Desktop Icon
 Layout" and "Restore Desktop Icon Layout". This is handy in case you
 change resolution and it moves your icons into the top left corner of
 your screen, you can just restore the icons to their original
 position, as long as you saved the layout beforehand!

 Ethernet Drivers - Bashrat The Sneaky Ethernet Drivers are included
 here in case you do not have connectivity out of the box on first
 install. To get your Ethernet Card working, just read the included
 ReadMe.txt file.

 Hibernation - batch files to enable or disable Hibernation. Microsoft
 must have forgotten to put an option in the Windows GUI to enable or
 disable Hibernation! How stupid is that? You could do it in Windows XP,
 but not anymore in Windows Vista. So these batch files allow you to
 instantly turn Hibernation on or off. Hibernation feature is disabled
 in this installation. If you need to use Hibernation you'll have to
 run the relevant batch file to enable it. NOTE: With Hibernation
 enabled you're wasting as much hard drive space as the size of your
 RAM so if you have say 2Gb of RAM, then you're wasting 2Gb of disk
 space.

 Keyboard Settings - This install is set to U.S. keyboard by default.
 To quickly open "Regional and Language Options" run the included file
 "Quick Access.bat". There you can change your keyboard to your own
 country if you need to.

 nVidia Hotfix -  If you have an nVidia GeForce graphics card, you
 should install this hotfix. This is only for nVidia cards, not ATI
 or any other card.

 Registry Backup - Simple batch file to create a complete registry
 backup, just double click the "Backup Your Registry.bat" file
 included here.

 User Password - Quickly set up your login password.

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

 TuneUp Utilities 2007 and Registry Mechanic have both been tested
 on this edition of Windows and are okay to use... but backup your
 registry before using these kind of programs, just to be safe.

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

 QUICK FAQ
 ---------

 Q: How functional is this TinyVista?

 A: Very! Things that will zap your performance like System Restore
 and Superfetch are either removed or disabled, but you do not need
 to have such a thing as "System Restore" making backups in the
 background, it just slows your system down - instead of using
 System Restore, use "Acronis True Image Home v11" backup CD.
 This installation is designed to take away all the things that
 ruin your performance, for example the "Superfetch" service
 causes your hard disk to be constantly spinning, that ISN'T
 GOOD and is just wearing your hard drive out, for what? It seems
 no reason, so this service is disabled. You can still use a
 printer, digital camera, you still have the Aero Glass theme,
 Ethernet drivers and fax support, modem support... this version
 of Windows Vista is designed for 99% of users to use without
 you even noticing it is a cut down version, that is the main
 aim of it.

 Q: eXPerience, you removed the Chinese language?

 A: Yes, I also removed a lot of other things. If you do not
 like whats removed - DO NOT USE THIS INSTALLATION. No one
 is forcing you to use this. Just use the full version from
 Microsoft that uses almost 4 times more hard drive space
 (oh then also add on the size of your RAM for the hiberfil
 sys file which is also disabled in this version, although
 you can easily re-enable it if you need to)

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

 Don't forget to join SnipeR's Redemption Network!

  http://forum.retestrak.nl/index.php

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

 Released: February 2008

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

 

Yes vlite for future use. He doesn't need to reinstall yet as his Vista is fine just the language folders to get rid of. When you do a Vista clean install
the only language folders are those in the Boot folder. It should be safe to delete the language folders other than the one being used en-gb as thats the only one installed.

Delete all these that are in the Boot folder except for en-gb. These are the boot screens. If you have more you probably downloaded via Windows Update, the additional ones. You be able to uninstall these. What folders are they located in?

Go to the Control Panel and click on the Programs and Features icon. Next, click View Installed Updates in the left panel. All of your program updates, as well as Microsoft updates will be listed in this location. Check for any non english update language packs. Once you get rid of these it be safe to delete the folders. They might of come with SP1.

ar-SA
bg-BG
cs-CZ
da-DK
de-DE
el-GR
es-ES
et-EE
fi-FI
fr-FR
he-IL
hr-HR
hu-HU
it-IT
ja-JP
ko-KR
lt-LT
lv-LV
nb-NO
nl-NL
pl-PL
pt-BR
pt-PT
ro-RO
ru-RU
sk-SK
sl-SI
sr-Latn-CS
sv-SE
th-TH
tr-TR
uk-UA
zh-CN
zh-HK
zh-TW

 

Is it legal?

 

Yes it's legal if you use your own keycode.

 

Heres another vote for vLite

 

No such options. This apparently has only one language installed, but has a bunch of crap installed on the HP image.

 

@AKAJohnDoe
yes so lpksetup.exe /u took care of that.

try out the details in post 5

 

I wish one could safely delete the winsxs folder, that takes more than half of the whole windows installation in my machine (4.2GB)

 

I'm using that TinyVista and my whole Windows folder is ~2,5GB and winsxs ~1,0GB

 

There are no languages installed in the updates, and the /U run did not uninstall any, either. Yet there are many languages in many different directories throughout the file system. I cannot easily delete them, apparently because they all contain dll files with identical names and those dll names are likely in use. I can probably takeownership and delete them. How tedious. VLite really won't help as I did not install them I cannot remove them.


I think I'll wait for Vista Home Premium SP1 or SP2 (I do not yet have SP1 installed) since both of those will likely undo whatever I do anyway before I embark upon a cleanup operation.

 

It may be legal with a legally obtained Product-key, BUT you stand the risk of not being able to upgrade that kind of modified OS with new Service Packs!

 

That's not a problem. He release new version quite often, atleast after new service pack. And of course I can use windows update

 

correction meant to say remove all except en-us not en-gb as i didnt see en-us in the list you posted but you mentioned in your paragraph. It sound like your using Vista OEM that comes with your HP pc. HP will of included its own files and changed the way it installs and don't have control on how it installs. If you willing you could take a disk image backup the image onto another partition other than the system partition and then reinstall Vista and see if the language files are like they are now. If its alot cleaner and just in the Boot folder you can mount the backup image and pull out your personal data into the new Vista and use that and easier task deleting the language files.

vlite will rip out the language packs from the DVD so they won't be installed as they not there to begin with. this is a good solution for other times. they will be alot other junk you can pull out too reducing the install especially being OEM.

@sukarof
yes if only what a saving! even an Administrator can't delete that. It like a System32 folder with updates and dlls are used for compatibility and more i don't know.

Incidentally Server 2008 has all those folders of Vista, so you can delete the same folders to save space. I'm using a trial of Server 2008. You can run the trial of Server for 240 days. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948472

 

I ran a series of DOS commands to find how many of these directories I had out there. It appears I missed a couple, but still there are a lot of them.

I think I will take a good backup and start deleting them and see what happens.

 

Maybe before deleting anything you should boot into the full blown admin account and delete the account you are forced to create at install?]

Up to you?

 

You don't have to create account in installation. Haven't tested with Vista but with XP hit Shift+F10 when wizard program starts after fresh installation. Write taskmgr, press Enter. Terminate that wizard program and just log with Admin account.

 

I have UAC disabled. What would be the purpose of accessing or modifying the hidden, and disabled, administrator account?

 

winsxs is essential but you can delete a lot of the files within if you know what you're doing. Use a search util to seach for files above a certain size or of certain file types and you can find lots of videos, audio and language files that can save a few hundred MB.