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Windows 11 – Cleaning WinSxS

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The WinSxS Folder
The topic of the Windows Side-by-side assembly folder (aka WinSxS or Component Store) has been the source of much discussion and misinformation since it first appeared in Windows Vista.
Overly simplified, the WinSxS folder is the folder that holds the Windows Component Store. The Windows Component Store holds files that are “used to support the functions needed for the customization and updating of Windows.”
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Windows 11 Disk Cleanup

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First Things First
On modern systems with SSD’s, cleaning your drives IS NOT A PERFORMANCE TWEAK unless your drive is near full. SSDs do not get fragmented and Windows not only periodically cleans system files but also automatically optimizes drives (TRIM).
You clean a drive to reduce its size resulting in quicker backup and recovery and a smaller image.
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Using the portable version of Wise Disk Cleaner (WDC)

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Although I’m showing WDC for this guide, this is meant to show you how to create a sort of toolbox for your PC.
I’m using Start11 for this guide. I use it on all my Windows machines. It’s a paid program. No, I don’t get a cut.
This is long. If you get confused, please see the pictures below.
I keep a folder of portable tools that I use on every system. From there I create a menu I can access by either my start menu (via Start11) or the system tray.
Once I setup the portable apps and their shortcuts, I can update all the folders on all my machines regularly because I keep my folder structures the same across machines (via SyncToy).
I going to use Wise Disk Cleaner as an example
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Core Parking

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I’ve been perusing the web and came across several articles and forum posts discussing the Core Parking tweak. Folks seem to still be misinterpreting what it actually does and sometimes posting the wrong instructions.
I thought I would try and set things straight.
I would appreciate some feedback on this article, does it make sense, did I get something wrong?
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Fixing Microsoft’s KB5034441 Charlie Foxtrot

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Back in January I mentioned that there was an issue installing the Windows 10 KB5034441 update. This update provides an update to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). The update fails for most people with error 0x80070643. The excuse given was, “update requires 250 MB of free space in the recovery partition to install successfully”. It failed on the 6 computers I have running Win10.
At the time I said about this, “here is a “fix”, I tried it and it works. HOWEVER, I DO NOT recommend it at this time. Give Microsoft time to see if they can fix this.”
Welp, according to Neowin, “Microsoft has acknowledged that an automatic resolution for this issue will not be released and as such, the only way to fix this is manually.”
That’s just friggin’ great. A perfect example of the downfall of Microsoft. Create a problem due to poor quality control and then refuse to fix it. This has left the non-Geek out there to try and do a geeky exercise that could render their computer unbootable. Thanks Microsoft!
Here’s how to fix it…
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