21 ms·

32GB definitely seems cramped for Windows. 64GB would probably be safe going forward for at least OS updates

by _bxg1 7y ago

Koshkin 7y ago
It does not cease to amaze me how bloated Windows is (compared to any Linux out there, anyway), and how it gets more bloated with each update.
- equalunique 7y ago
  A year or two ago, I freed up like 100GB of space from my Windows OS drive by deleting these files: https://serverfault.com/questions/746849/windows-temp-large-amounts-of-cab-xxxx-files/746968 https://serverfault.com/questions/746849/windows-temp-large-... It was a corporate laptop, so maybe the problem exacerbated itself to that level due to frequent patches the employer was pushing.
- 0xcde4c3db 7y ago
  Storage-wise, most of the "bloat" in modern Windows is pretty defensible. The extra space needed for a service pack / feature update is mostly to enable aborting or rolling back the upgrade. A good chunk of a small storage device is reserved for hibernating the system (hiberfil.sys), which might not be great for desktops but is table stakes for battery-powered systems. A lot of seemingly redundant data is from WinSxS (Side-by-Side), which is Microsoft's answer to "DLL hell" and -- loosely speaking -- a precursor to things like Snappy, Flatpak, and AppImage. The same fundamental concerns will most likely cause the average Linux installation to be similarly "bloated" in another 10 years or so as more backward compatibility needs accumulate.
- Fr0styMatt88 7y ago
  The bloat in Windows is an interesting issue. I put together Windows OS images and a freshly-installed, before-updates Windows 10 image might be around 2 gigs (maybe a bit more or less, I’m going from memory here). Granted, a Linux distro may hit that size with a lot more preinstalled software, but I haven’t paid much attention. Windows starts bloating when you apply updates. It keeps a lot around to facilitate rolling back updates if needed; this gets cleaned up over time but it can be an issue on a small disk. There’s ways to get the size back down (while sacrificing the ability to roll back updates that you’ve applied), but you don’t regain all the space. I get the feeling the Windows Update mechanism is a large legacy mess that is stuck having to account for corner-cases that have built up over time. Microsoft are improving it; I think it’s just a really big engineering task that they’re having to slowly work through. I vaguely remember something about the way Windows handles overwriting open files in-place which makes this worse, but I can’t remember the specifics off the top of my head.
  - _bxg1 7y ago
    > I get the feeling the Windows Update mechanism is a large legacy mess that is stuck having to account for corner-cases that have built up over time. I get the feeling that Windows itself is a large legacy mess that is stuck having to account for corner-cases that have built up over time. Of course this facilitates its impressive degree of backwards-compatibility (one of its most desirable features), but still.
    - Fr0styMatt88 7y ago
      Every time I try to play a game that I paid for on iOS that no longer works because Apple doesn't care about backwards compatibility, I'm reminded of how thankful I am for Microsoft's efforts here. I really think the amount they've improved Windows under-the-hood over time is impressive, especially taking into account the constraints they've had to work within. On a related (though somewhat tangential) note I must say that I think MS tying WinRT (which as I understand it is the clean rewrite of the Windows API) to the Microsoft Store initially was a massive mistake. I still don't have a clear, confident impression of where I can or should use WinRT, even after all these years.

32GB definitely seems cramped for Windows. 64GB would probably be safe going forward for at least OS updates

by _bxg1 7y ago

32GB definitely seems cramped for Windows. 64GB would probably be safe going forward for at least OS updates

It does not cease to amaze me how bloated Windows is (compared to any Linux out there, anyway), and how it gets more bloated with each update.

equalunique 7y ago
A year or two ago, I freed up like 100GB of space from my Windows OS drive by deleting these files: https://serverfault.com/questions/746849/windows-temp-large-amounts-of-cab-xxxx-files/746968 https://serverfault.com/questions/746849/windows-temp-large-... It was a corporate laptop, so maybe the problem exacerbated itself to that level due to frequent patches the employer was pushing.
0xcde4c3db 7y ago
Storage-wise, most of the "bloat" in modern Windows is pretty defensible. The extra space needed for a service pack / feature update is mostly to enable aborting or rolling back the upgrade. A good chunk of a small storage device is reserved for hibernating the system (hiberfil.sys), which might not be great for desktops but is table stakes for battery-powered systems. A lot of seemingly redundant data is from WinSxS (Side-by-Side), which is Microsoft's answer to "DLL hell" and -- loosely speaking -- a precursor to things like Snappy, Flatpak, and AppImage. The same fundamental concerns will most likely cause the average Linux installation to be similarly "bloated" in another 10 years or so as more backward compatibility needs accumulate.
Fr0styMatt88 7y ago
The bloat in Windows is an interesting issue. I put together Windows OS images and a freshly-installed, before-updates Windows 10 image might be around 2 gigs (maybe a bit more or less, I’m going from memory here). Granted, a Linux distro may hit that size with a lot more preinstalled software, but I haven’t paid much attention. Windows starts bloating when you apply updates. It keeps a lot around to facilitate rolling back updates if needed; this gets cleaned up over time but it can be an issue on a small disk. There’s ways to get the size back down (while sacrificing the ability to roll back updates that you’ve applied), but you don’t regain all the space. I get the feeling the Windows Update mechanism is a large legacy mess that is stuck having to account for corner-cases that have built up over time. Microsoft are improving it; I think it’s just a really big engineering task that they’re having to slowly work through. I vaguely remember something about the way Windows handles overwriting open files in-place which makes this worse, but I can’t remember the specifics off the top of my head.
- _bxg1 7y ago
  > I get the feeling the Windows Update mechanism is a large legacy mess that is stuck having to account for corner-cases that have built up over time. I get the feeling that Windows itself is a large legacy mess that is stuck having to account for corner-cases that have built up over time. Of course this facilitates its impressive degree of backwards-compatibility (one of its most desirable features), but still.
  - Fr0styMatt88 7y ago
    Every time I try to play a game that I paid for on iOS that no longer works because Apple doesn't care about backwards compatibility, I'm reminded of how thankful I am for Microsoft's efforts here. I really think the amount they've improved Windows under-the-hood over time is impressive, especially taking into account the constraints they've had to work within. On a related (though somewhat tangential) note I must say that I think MS tying WinRT (which as I understand it is the clean rewrite of the Windows API) to the Microsoft Store initially was a massive mistake. I still don't have a clear, confident impression of where I can or should use WinRT, even after all these years.