Cleaning out Windows Vista

I'm getting more and more problems with Windows Vista. Even though I've converted all my PCs to Windows 7 except one, it seems that my customers are having problems. Windows Vista-based systems sold a couple of years ago (some by me) with only 1Gb of RAM memory are slowing down and even grinding to a halt. The pressures and demands of modern software and broadband technologies have become too much for these limited systems.

Also any virus or spyware scans are taking longer and longer. Normal file cleansing methods have limited success. One major culprit is Vista's Side-by-side Winsxs directory which grows to over 10Gb with tens of thousands of small files. Scanning all these files often takes longer than the rest of the hard disk drive.

Thousands of these files can be removed by either using Vista Service Pack 1's Vsp1cln command or Service Pack 2's Compcln command. These should be run from an Administrator's command line window. It helps a bit. Adding at least another gigabyte of RAM sure helps as well.