Putting Windows10 on a diet.... Tablet PC

[jeeb]

Hi Folks,

So I have a number of windows tablets, windows 10 of course keeps growing and the disk space is reducing drastically.

I want to throw windows onto a diet and reduce the OS and its components and remove unnecessary folders.

I just want Windows to work. Don't want anything fancy, don't need Cortana, or multiples of languages. I have already taken a backup of the tablets disk drive in case I need to restore it. Cleaned up windows update, but this clogs up shortly after...

I have cleared prefatch, temp folders, uninstalled the unnecessary bloating games which come with the device, but I don't need all the pre-installed software it came with either, things like xbox, or music, I just want a blank and basic OS, where if I need anything extra, I can install it myself!

I have compacted the OS (one tablet it reduced it from 1:1.65) but the others its not made a great difference.

I have also run diskmgr /sageset:65535, so cleared that up also as much as I could.

Currently running DISM to reduce the bulk.

Any other ideas of directories I can cleanup?

The current "structure" is:

C:\$Windows.~BT - 4GB
C:\Program Files - 270MB
C:\ProgramData - 290MB
C:\Users - 254MB
C:\Windows - 13.8GB
C:\Windows\System32 - 1.37GB
C:\Windows\SystemApps - 139MB
C:\Windows\SysWow64 - 1.26GB
C:\WinSXS - 8.5GB

Thanks

James

 

[mackerel]

The first one in the list is related to major version updates. Not sure if it is the install files, or the old backup, but it can be deleted if no longer needed. The built in "disk clean up" tool might offer to do it for you if you don't want to manually do it, select the admin option when cleaning for more stuff. It also tidies up outdated update files. If not run for a long time, that can add up.

I don't know about other GPUs, but if any of them use nvidia drivers, next time you do an update, use the "clean install" option. If you don't do that, old versions of the driver remain on the system. At many hundreds of MB each, it can easily add up to several GB after some time.

 

[don256us]

For the winsxs folder, consider this article from MS.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/clean-up-the-winsxs-folder

Most of the other folders need to be handled with care. When removing programs, I like to use Revo Uninstaller which looks for orphaned files/folders/reg keys and lets you remove them. There may be other products too. I like CCleaner to do general cleanup.

 

[Alaric]

You could use this http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/msmg_toolkit.html or these http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_10_home_no_bloatware_edition_64_bit.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_10_pro_no_bloatware_edition_64_bit.html