May 30, 2018  In Windows 7 you cannot delete anything from C: Windows Assembly. It looks like you have not uninstalled the ATI drivers properly from the computer. I would suggest that you contact the ATI AMD support for more information on how to completely remove the drivers from the computer. I have a Windows 7 system, and my C: drive is regularly getting full. What can I safely delete from the C: drive, especially the Windows system folder?

I have a Windows 7 system, and my C: drive is regularly getting full.

What can I safely delete from the C: drive, especially the Windows system folder?

Ula KrukarUla Krukar

4 Answers

Delete Temp Files In Windows 10

The biggest stuff in C:Windows should be the winsxs folder, read more about that problem Why does the /winsxs folder grow so large, and can it be made smaller?. Since that stuff is used by all kind of apps, you must not remove it. And since it is the biggest chunk (of 'junk'), all other directories do not matter that much any more.

You can obviously remove some leftovers / rollback-stuff, best done via http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER.

To make it short: Buy a bigger disk.

Community♦
akiraakira

I've written a Blog post on the SuperUser Blog detailing some of the things you can do to scrape back some hard drive space. Read it at Where did all my hard drive space go?

To summarise, there are many things you can do, depending on whether there is functionality that you need:

  • Don't use hibernation? Then you can disable it and claim back a quantity of hard drive space equal to the amount of RAM you have, you just need to log on as an administrator, open a command prompt and type the following two lines:

    powercfg –h off
    del C:hiberfil.sys

  • Old Windows Update files can be deleted as the folder they are stored in used to get quite big. They are stored in C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution but you'll need to go through the method I detailed in the blog to properly clean the directory out.

  • System Restore is another hog and deleting old restore points can clean out space, you can even control how much space is available for use with System Restore

    As an administrator, simply click the Windows Start menu icon, enter “SystemPropertiesProtection.exe”

  • The WinSxS folder is a red herring and contains no data that is not already duplicated elsewhere and deleting it will save you nothing. This special folder contains what is known as a hard links to files which are scattered across your system and are kept in that folder to simplify matters slightly. The hard links take nearly no extra space in the filesystem as they are simply another pointer to already existing file data.

An alternative to the excellent CCleaner that Akira linked is a more commercially supported alternative from IOBits, Advanced SystemCare4. There is a free version available which will likely do just as much to clean out your system as CCleaner, but has a few added extras.

Mokubai♦Mokubai
Location

Since October 2013 the disk cleanup utility was enhanced with the ability to clean up Service Pack and Windows Update files, this is the safest way to reduce the sized of WinSXS folder.

KB2852386 is what added this feature and most W7 PC's have it installed now.

Cleanup first pass

Click Clean up system files button and this is what you will see.

MoabMoab

I've been playing with the WinSXS folder in a few test installs and I have figured out a way to save some space. In a 3 month old Windows 7 Pro install on my laptop, the SxS folder grew to 14GB. I can safely delete 7.4GB of that without any issues.

I was a bit surprised to read that most 'technical' write ups say you can't delete anything in the SxS folder without issues. This is just not true and I wonder if anyone has tried different scenarios or if that opinion is just grown off of Microsoft's warnings. There is one thing that you can't do after 'cleaning' the SxS folder, but it's rare that you'd need to so I won't even waste the keystrokes.

I've had this running smoothly for a LONG time, and on the laptop I use for work as an IT Director, so I put it through it's paces - that's for sure. It's well worth the disk space in some cases. For example -- I love my laptop which is an older Dell and I've got an SSD drive in it. The SSD is only 60 gig, so space is at a premium. As is, I use a 32GB SDCard in the onboard reader to give me extra space, but knocking a chunk of useless crap off is a nice option when you don't need 75% of the files in that folder.

I'll do a write up on it and post it here in the next couple of days.

Cor BryantCor Bryant

protected by Community♦Jun 10 '16 at 1:40

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I was curious if all Temp and Log directories are created equal and if its safe to clean any folder named 'Temp' or any Log directory or .log file
Ran command 'dir /b /s /ad findstr '<Temp>' clip
and pasted in notedpad to get an idea of temp directory locations
I know the normal ones are safe to clean, but here are a list of ones I am not quite sure about.
Also the same thing for Logs*.* or .log is any of the TEMP or LOG directories not safe to remove or clean?
Besides using CCleaner or etc. is there a command the will look for any folder named 'XYZ'
even if you don't know the path (variable) and clean all its contents.
So if you had a folder named TopSecretTemp
But you didn't know the parent folders, or directory tree structure. it would clean only the contents of the TEMP directory, and it would find it.
I also have a network drive that has a bunch of profiles, and a lot of this information is sent to archive drives, but the contents has a lot of Temp folders. unknown locations....
The orginal staff along time ago, just made copies into different folders with all users%username%blah blah blah temp
they did this all over the place, so the folder could be named 'new folder 1' usersusername.....
It could be named copy copyuserusername.......
This goes on tons of times.... and aside from doing a grand search that goes on forever since its a huge TB'sssss Drives... I just want to cleanthem all no matter what directory they are in, and without me specifying...
But as I mentioned, I am curious if any .log log directories or Temp directories are not safe to clean or remove.... Here are some I just came across...
Path for each catagory is listed further down:
#NetBackup Temp
#Inetpub Temp
#CCM -- not even sure what CCM is but all Temp
#Temp Normal: C:Windows c:Temp
# User Profile Windows
#NetworkService
#SystemProfile
#Default
#DefaultAppPool
#Classic .NET
#All Users
#MVPSI/JAMS
#PCHealth
#RAC
#Search
#WinSXS Temp directory
# AssemblyNativeImages Net v2.0 Temp
# AssemblyNativeImages Net v4.0 Temp
# .Net Framework Net v2.0 Temporary ASP.NET Files
# .Net Framework Net v4.0 Temporary ASP.NET Files
#System Center Operations Manager 2007 Temp folders
#DriverStore
#NetBackup
C:Program FilesVERITASNetBackupTemp
C:NetBackup Temp
#Inetpub
C:inetpubtempIIS Temporary Compressed Files
C:inetpubtemp
#CCM -- not even sure what CCM is
C:WINDOWSSysWOW64CCMTemp
C:WINDOWSSysWOW64CCMCIAgentTemp
C:WINDOWSSysWOW64CCMCIAgentTempCIDefnDownloads
C:WINDOWSSysWOW64CCMInventoryTemp
C:WINDOWSSysWOW64CCMInventoryTempFileColl
C:WINDOWSSysWOW64CCMMeteringTemp
C:WINDOWSSysWOW64CCMServiceDataTemp
#Temp
C:WINDOWSTemp
C:Temp
#Web Extentions
C:Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedWeb Server Extensions12LOGS
# User Profile
C:Documents and Settings%username%Temp
C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsTemp
C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C:Users%username%AppDataLocalTemp
C:Users%username%AppDataLocalTemporary Internet Files
C:Users%username%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files
#NetworkService
C:Documents and SettingsNetworkServiceTemp
C:Documents and SettingsNetworkServiceLocal SettingsTemp
C:Documents and SettingsNetworkServiceLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersNetworkServiceAppDataLocalTemp
C:UsersNetworkServiceAppDataLocalTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersNetworkServiceAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files
#SystemProfile
C:WINDOWSsystem32configsystemprofileLocal SettingsTemp
C:WINDOWSsystem32configsystemprofileLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C:WINDOWSsystem32configsystemprofileLocal SettingsTemp
C:WINDOWSsystem32configsystemprofileLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C:WindowsServiceProfilesLocalServiceAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files
C:WindowsServiceProfilesNetworkServiceAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet FilesTemp
C:WindowsSystem32configsystemprofileAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files
C:WindowsSysWOW64configsystemprofileAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files

Temp Folder Location

C:WindowsServiceProfilesLocalServiceAppDataLocalTemp
C:WindowsServiceProfilesNetworkServiceAppDataLocalTemp
#Default
C:Documents and SettingsDefaultTemp
C:Documents and SettingsDefaultLocal SettingsTemp
C:Documents and SettingsDefaultLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersDefaultAppDataLocalTemp
C:UsersDefaultAppDataLocalTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersDefaultAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files
#DefaultAppPool
C:Documents and SettingsDefaultAppPoolTemp
C:Documents and SettingsDefaultAppPoolLocal SettingsTemp
C:Documents and SettingsDefaultAppPoolLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersDefaultAppPoolAppDataLocalTemp
C:UsersDefaultAppPoolAppDataLocalTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersDefaultAppPoolAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files
#Classic .NET
C:Documents and SettingsClassic .NET AppPoolTemp
C:Documents and SettingsClassic .NET AppPoolLocal SettingsTemp
C:Documents and SettingsClassic .NET AppPoolLocal SettingsTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersClassic .NET AppPoolAppDataLocalTemp
C:UsersClassic .NET AppPoolAppDataLocalTemporary Internet Files
C:UsersClassic .NET AppPoolAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsTemporary Internet Files
#MVPSI/JAMS
C:Program FilesMVPSIJAMSAgentTemp
#PCHealth
C:WINDOWSPCHealthHelpCtrTemp
#RAC
C:ProgramDataMicrosoftRACTemp
C:UsersAll UsersMicrosoftRACTemp
#Search
C:ProgramDataMicrosoftSearchDataTemp
C:UsersAll UsersMicrosoftSearchDataTemp
# AssemblyNativeImages Net v2.0 Temp
C:WindowsassemblyNativeImages_v2.0.50727_32Temp
C:WindowsassemblyNativeImages_v2.0.50727_64Temp
# AssemblyNativeImages Net v4.0 Temp
C:WindowsassemblyNativeImages_v4.0.30319_32Temp
C:WindowsassemblyNativeImages_v4.0.30319_64Temp
#WinSXS
C:WindowswinsxsTemp
C:WindowswinsxsTempPendingDeletes
C:WindowswinsxsTempPendingRenames
#DriverStore
C:WindowsSystem32DriverStoreTemp
#System Center Operations Manager 2007
C:Program FilesSystem Center Operations Manager 2007Health Service StateMonitoring Host Temporary Files
# .Net Framework Net v2.0 Temporary ASP.NET Files
C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727Temporary ASP.NET Files
C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFramework64v2.0.50727Temporary ASP.NET Files
# .Net Framework Net v4.0 Temporary ASP.NET Files
C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv4.0.30319Temporary ASP.NET Files
C:WindowsMicrosoft.NETFramework64v4.0.30319Temporary ASP.NET Files
#All Users
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