The component store (WinSxS folder) contains components that make-up Windows and allow you to operate your system. These components are kept in this folder in case you need to roll back changes or repair corrupted files. The folder is located at C:\Windows\WinSxS. Files in this folder might appear to be stored in more than one place in the operating system, but there’s usually only one copy of the file and the rest of the copies are hard links. Here are some examples of how the Windows Component Store files are used:
Using Windows Update to install new component versions. This keeps systems secure and up-to-date. Enabling or disabling Windows features. Adding roles or features using Server Manager. Moving systems between different Windows Editions. System recovery from corruption or boot failures Uninstalling problematic updates Running programs using side-by-side assemblies
While you may use File Explorer can determine the size of directories without taking into account that the contained files might be hard linked, using it to determine the size of the WinSxS folder may not give you the correct results. DISM includes functionality that can determine how much disk space the WinSxS folder uses.
How to view the size of the WinSxS folder in Windows 11
As mentioned above, using File Explorer to determine the size of the WinSxS folder in Windows 11, DISM includes functionality that can determine how much disk space the WinSxS folder uses. Below is how to determine the size of your WinSxS folder in Windows 11. To do that, first open Windows Terminal as administrator and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt. Once opened, run the command below to view the actual size of your WinSxS folder. Here’s the information that’s available in the output: In this example, the WinSxS folder appears to be 7.15 GB, but the actual overhead (the sum of the size of backups and disabled features and the size of the cache and temporary data) is 1.46 GB. That should do it! Conclusion: This post showed you how to determine the WinSxS folder in Windows 11. If you find any error above or have something to share, please use the comments form below.
