Winsxs

“Ok this new version of windows is a bit hungry, so every couple of months just throw a new hard-drive its way and it should be fine.”

Recently I decided to clear out the never ending accumulation of junk from my computer, now that I think of it more time is spent getting rid of clutter than doing anything productive, anyway I came across this folder named winsxs.  This folder is taking over the asylum that I call windows. A folder that is 3.5gigs in size has 6005 folders inside and apparently allows us to have several dll’s of the same name blah blah, yet nobody can give me an answer in English as to why is has to be so large.

Use the link below for a full explanation, but might I suggest you ingest some sort of mind altering substance before doing so, it might make things clearer.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa374224.aspx

Don’t get me wrong, at present I have more than enough disk space to allow for this folder, but how big is it going to get?  I know that with every new operating system an increase is size is inevitable, but this is just getting ridiculous. It is bigger than an entire clean installation of Vista.Would it be safe to just delete it? Or is it best to turn a blind eye and allow windows to have carte blanche over our machines.

On another machine I am running Ubuntu Linux with Beryl, and what a powerful combination that is.  Why doesn’t Linux need as many hungry resources as Windows? Yet still seem to perform just as well.  Now I’m not getting into the debate about which is better because I have used both for many years, and have no preference.

Operating systems are getting so big and complex these days.  Is it just better to wander off blindly? Instead of bothering ourselves with something that clearly has nothing to do with us anymore. If you look at the space needed for the swapfile, browsing history, system backup and now winsxs then you will realize no matter how big the harddrive, windows will want it all.

To summerize, dont be impressed with the amount of ram, size of harddrive, processor speed, how big and fast the graphics card or how clear the sound card is. Because all that matters is can it run the current version of windows, and could i possibly run the next version of windows. Because one thing is for sure, it wont go much past that.

If all you really do is surf the internet then dont worry, your machine will last you for a good few years yet. Dont feel pressured into buying the latest machine.