A note to myself with instructions for shrinking a fresh install of Windows 7 from 30GB to 10GB. There are three main steps to minimizing the final install size. Hibernation file, System Restore and Page file. By stopping, removing or shrinking these we can shrink and decrease Windows 7 install size from 30GB to 10GB.
Prevent System Hibernation
To see hibernation file size: in cmd prompt enter:
dir c:\ /as
This will show you the hibernation file size, which will be the same as your RAM. Your hibernation file size can be huge, which is why we stop hibernation here. Note that doing the next line will prevent your computer from going into hibernation. If you need hibernation then leave this on! Note, removing hibernation functionality in Windows is great for SSD drives and prevents useless and damaging writes to the drive of yourramsizeGB each time.
Open start menu -> type cmd -> right click on cmd that shows up and select run as administrator -> enter password if needed -> type powercfg -h off -> this will have turned off hibernation. Hibernation took 8GB OF SPACE!!!! wow. You can type dic c:\ /as again to check it’s worked.
Minimize System Restore
Here we turn down the size requirements of Windows system restore. You should know if you need system restore or not and how much. If you don’t know what you are doing you should not be reading this!
Open computer -> system properties -> system protection – >choose c: -> adjust the amount of disk space you would like to allocate…I set it to 1%, about 1GB.
Shrink Paging file
Open computer -> system properties -> advanced -> performace -> settings -> advanced -> virtual memory -> turn off automatically manage paging file size -> “tick” custom size, enter 1024 and 4096. Click set. click ok, apply. Might need to restart. You have 10GB of ram so will never touch paging except in extreme situations. Readers situation may not be the same. Do this last because it requires a restart.
That’s it. If you now check your computer area you will see the Windows 7 disk space usage has gone down from the 30GB originally to around 10-12GB now. We have lost some Windows functionality by doing this (like hibernation) but I believe this is worth it. Especially if you are using an SSD as your main Windows drive.
Extra things to do with a fresh install of Windows:
Update graphics driver. Go to your graphic card providers website and download the latest driver installation pack. Install it for a very quick and steady boost to your graphics and gaming capabilities.
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