Good ways to make Windows 7 installation smaller?

This is on a non-SSD drive so some of those tips might not apply. I'm kind of surprised that after installing Windows 7 and a few programs, over 25GB of space is already being taken up. That seems like a lot. What are some recommended tweaks that can be done to give some space back for a spinning hard drive though?

The System Restore files can take up a lot of space and you can clean them up like this. (see screenshots)

how much ram is in the computer? if it's 8 gigs, the default is to have a 8gb page file - you can safely reduce down to near nothing if you want (you will get a low page file warning if you actually need it, at which point you can increase it)

http://www.rt7lite.com/

imno, if you got the disk space, don't worry about it.

If you did a back up before installing you might be able to get rid of the windows.old file. I know mine was 60 gigs after I went from Vista home to win 7 prof 64. I moved mine to a small HDD I had laying around until I can make sure there isn't anything I want out of it.

You can remove the backup files created when SP1 was installed. Shaves off a few GBs.

Also I went into Programs and Features and removed things like Media Player, IE9, tablet-specific functions, etc. Though I agree that if you have an HDD and presumably a lot of space, it's not really worth saving a few more GBs other than removing SP1 backup files.

I pretty much would reiterate what others above have said, it's all sound.

Page file is the hard drive space that is used as memory swap if your computer needs it. As stated if 8GB you don't need it, disable or decrease to near zero.

In your root directory you will also see hiberfil.sys, which is what your computer uses to store your ram data into when you hibernate. If it is a desktop that you never hibernate you can delete it, for a laptop I would keep it.

You can find a guide to do both those on the internet.

Removing program features is the next option, I removed all games, IE, and tablet stuff from my W7 SSD.

And as stated, if you have the room, don't bother. It's not like making windows smaller (at least like this) will make it faster.

-B&C

Quote from 2cheap4retail : imno, if you got the disk space, don't worry about it.

Only time to worry about that is if you have an SSD.

maybe he's plannin to migrate to ssd down the road?

Quote from Count_Chocula : maybe he's plannin to migrate to ssd down the road?

How many people do you know that can reduce a partition and clone a drive but don't know where windows uses some extra bloat?

-B&C

Oh wow I forgot about this thread since I hadn't messed with the laptop in a while so let me answer a few questions

1) This is only an 80GB hard drive. The laptop came with a 640GB but that is complete overkill for my mother so I replaced it. Maybe I'll get an external enclosure for her so she then also has a backup device using that 640gb.
2) there is only 4GB of RAM (two 2gb sticks). I doubt upgrading will be beneficial for her because she doesn't do much on the computer anyway.
3) This was a fresh install so there is no windows.old folder to delete
4) she is accustomed to internet explorer so I don't want to remove that
5) where are these tablet features that I can remove?
6) since I can do a fresh install, I don't really need system restore on the computer right?
7) since it is a spinning hard drive and not an SSD, it's probably best to keep the hibernate feature right? how much faster does that let a computer load back up compared to a hard start?

Quote from RUsum1 : Oh wow I forgot about this thread since I hadn't messed with the laptop in a while so let me answer a few questions 1) This is only an 80GB hard drive. The laptop came with a 640GB but that is complete overkill for my mother so I replaced it. Maybe I'll get an external enclosure for her so she then also has a backup device using that 640gb. 2) there is only 4GB of RAM (two 2gb sticks). I doubt upgrading will be beneficial for her because she doesn't do much on the computer anyway. 3) This was a fresh install so there is no windows.old folder to delete 4) she is accustomed to internet explorer so I don't want to remove that 5) where are these tablet features that I can remove? 6) since I can do a fresh install, I don't really need system restore on the computer right? 7) since it is a spinning hard drive and not an SSD, it's probably best to keep the hibernate feature right? how much faster does that let a computer load back up compared to a hard start?

Am I understanding you correctly, that you removed the stock hard drive and installed a regular mechanical drive that's only 80 gigs?
There are no tablet features to remove.
You should leave system restore on. It can really save your butt if something goes wrong, like a virus, or malware, or accidentally making a mess of something.
Some laptops take just as long to come out of hibernation as a fresh bootup, but the main reason for hibernating, is to keep all the programs and pages open, so as to not interrupt what you are doing.
Getting an eternal enclosure for that hard drive is a good idea.
Putting more ram in would be a waste of time and money.