Removing Windows features increases HD space?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by TheLostOne, Sep 15, 2009.

  1. TheLostOne

    TheLostOne MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2009
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    I just tried to turn off tablet pc components and the telnet client within Windows and observed the used disk space.

    Before turning off these spaces the used disk space was 14,9 GB and after turning off and restarting the used disk space raised to 15,2 GB.

    Why didn't I save space? Why did the opposite happen?
     
  2. Lenmaer

    Lenmaer MDL Addicted

    Jul 3, 2009
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    It's like turning off your TV, it will still be in your room.
     
  3. Jimcando

    Jimcando MDL Novice

    Mar 6, 2008
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    It won't reduce HDD space at all, but it really shouldn't be taking up more space. Must be something else that you didn't notice. Does turning the Windows Features back on take the used space back down to 14.9GB?
    Again, it really shouldn't be doing anything. All you're doing is disabling the features, not deleting them from the HDD.
     
  4. TheLostOne

    TheLostOne MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2009
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    I just re-enabled the features again and the disk space didn't change.

    How can I delete features completely instead of simply deactivating them?
     
  5. engage16

    engage16 MDL Junior Member

    Jul 30, 2009
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    Its due to the 'System Restore' and 'Shadow Copy' features... Make a smaller limit or disable them so they'll take up less room... I ran into the problem all the time with Vista... I'd have 10gb free on my HD then I would defrag my computer and have like 25gb free afterwards....
     
  6. Myrrh

    Myrrh MDL Expert

    Nov 26, 2008
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    No supported way to free up the space used by the OS files. Every feature of every edition is on your drive, whether enabled or not.

    There are unsupported ways of course, if you're willing to risk system stability in order to save on disk space.
     
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  7. ph03n!x

    ph03n!x MDL Member

    Apr 21, 2008
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    Is is just turned On or Turned Off- isn't that the name of the option- Turn Windows features On or Off?!! To remove it completely off your disk you need to look at way not built-in to the OS :)
     
  8. shakeyplace

    shakeyplace MDL Addicted

    May 5, 2007
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    #8 shakeyplace, Sep 17, 2009
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2009
    well, maybe some features. I turned off dvdmaker and the folder in \program files was reduced to ~7 mb, free disk space increased as well. The problem here definetly sounds like the shadow copy though (system restore). You can disable it and increase the free space, or just delete a few restore points..
    If you really want to save space I used vlite and winsxslite for my 4 GB netbook and have ultimate installed with all the usable features including bitlocker, windows live suite, security essentials, java, flash with 600 Mb free space..
    Tablet PC was one of the features I removed with vlite, that and natural language are big features I can't use with my netbook anyways
     
  9. skindogg

    skindogg MDL Novice

    Aug 11, 2009
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    You can free up alot of space if you don't need hibernate.

    run cmd as admin

    powercfg -h off

    I got about 6GB back. How much you get back is dependent on your ram I believe.