[SOLVED] Can't cleanup the WinSxS folder. Taking up ridiculous space

smoochiepook

Reputable
Aug 29, 2019
20
0
4,510
I've tried everything I've found on the Internet so far:

  1. I ran Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup in the Command Prompt as an admin. It didn't help.
  2. I tried to run Disk Cleanup as an admin and non-admin and I can't find an option that says "Windows Update Cleanup," so I can't check it to clean it. All of the other options didn't take up a considerable amount of space.
After doing either/both of those (not sure which), my Windows.old folder disappeared but no space had been freed up. So, I installed an app that told me my WinSxS folder was the problem, as it turned out to be taking up a fat 14 GB of space, and it's on my newly-installed SSD. Before this problem occurred, I was messing around with my graphics' card settings in an attempt to fix a micro-stuttering issue on a game, but since that only screwed it up even more, I resorted to resetting Windows. Then this happened. I'm literally at a loss!!

EDIT: Could I make a system restore point and then try to uninstall the WinSxS folder and see what happens? Or is that guaranteed to fail?
 
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