Windows Vista Info about every /Windows folders

Hi

Can some1 help me? i'm looking for a list of windows (vista) folders and what are their role in windows, like what does AppPatch or assembly mean.

I want to know if its safe if i delete some files (like 2 50 mb files in Windows\Logs\CBS) what does Winsxs do? it has 17 GB zomg -.-

 

I don’t know of any reference site but here is some information that may help:

1. In \Windows\Logs\CBS there are two files named CBS.log and CBS.persist.log. The CBS.persist.log is generated when CBS.log gets to be about 50MB in size. CBS.log is copied to CBS.persist.log and a new CBS.log file is started when certain programs are run, e.g. sfc. It should be safe to delete the CBS.persist.log as it is probably at least a couple of weeks old and is no longer useful. Also, you should be able to remove some of the CBS.log but leave the end bit, as it's the most recent.

2. There is a "˜run-once’ program in SP1 that will immediately clean up all the components that were replaced in the Winsxs folder when SP1 was installed. NOTE that once you run the program you will no longer be able to remove SP1 should any problems occur, so make absolutely certain your computer is behaving itself before running it. Firstly, check the size of the folder by right-clicking it, choose Properties and make a note of its size and the number of files and folders. To run the program, open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\System32, look for the file VSP1CLN.EXE (the capitals are for clarity only), right-click it, select Run As Administrator then reply Y to the prompt. Now check its size again. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much disk space you have reclaimed.

3. If you have SP2 installed and are happy with its performance, you can use the Microsoft program COMPCLN to remove files that SP2 has replaced. NOTE that once this program has been run you will not be able to remove SP2. To determine the disk space saved, have a look at the Properties (numbers and sizes of folders and files) in the \Windows folder both before and after running the program.
To run it, click the Windows Orb (Start) > All Programs > Accessories, right-click Command Prompt then "˜Run as Administrator’. Copy & Paste or type %windir%\system32\compcln.exe and press Enter. If you Copy & Paste the command, use mouse right-click to Paste it into the prompt. Type Y to the continue message.

 

I have Service Pack 2.

U seem to know something about the Windows folders... can u share some of your knowledge with other important/useless folders ?

I need a good Winsxs cleaner any1 knows one?

 

None of these folders are ‘useless‘ (your word), they’re all there for a reason.

Considering the size and cost of HDD these days, I suggest you ignore the small log files, but as I said previously the the winsxs (Windows side by side) folder can be very large. It contains multiple versions of many files so that a program can use its ‘own version‘. Do you remember ‘DLL Hell’, where application programs were overwriting system dll files with their own versions and causing other programs to crash? This was a major problem and the winsxs folder attempts to lessen it. It typically starts at 5GB when first installed with more than 6500 folders. It grows larger as more applications are installed. Don't attempt to delete anything from it other than my cleanup instructions above.

 

Well said BurrWalnut, should make this a sticky post along with Arie's post on top

Leave your system drive alone!

My system is only 12% of my drive space and a mere 2% of my total storage space why bother messing around with it, there is enough that can go wrong.