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RE: Get a netbook: Cheaper, tougher, and lasts longer

CobraA1 Updated - 10th Jul 2010

@psikeyhackr

Most of that is compatibility, drivers, and temp files.

Compatibility is really the biggest issue - Microsoft can't slim Windows down much without telling people they're gonna drop support for older software. So they have to keep a lot of old tech hanging around.

Drivers are also an issue: Windows supports a LOT of hardware. An unfathomable amount. Standardization helps, but most manufacturers still want to have extra useless features, as well as driver UIs that look like they were drawn by kids but take up an incredible amount of disk space.

I'm seeing DRIVERS from manufacturers that take 30+ MB all by themselves!

Here's a glance at my computer's C:\windows folder:

6.6 GB = winsxs, which is a place where Windows puts files for applications that try to overwrite Windows files. It makes them think they've succeeded when reality is they're only modifying their own personal copy. A lot of legacy software, written before Microsoft locked down Windows, tries to do this.

4.6 GB = System32/DriverStore. This is where Windows puts drivers. On my machine, the vast majority of it is nVidia drivers. Probably comes from that I'm a gamer and update them often.

3.5 GB = Installer. All of those apps that can be uninstalled, I assume.

2.7 GB = "Panther"? Haven't a clue. Preliminary research indicates possibly a leftover of installing Windows.

That's not all, but that's the biggest. Software compatibility, drivers, and installers. Not really Windows itself, but the cost of having an OS that is compatible with more software and more hardware than any other OS.

If Windows only ran on small number of devices, and nixed compatibility with XP and older versions of Windows - I think they could easily get it down to that size. The specific files that are part of the "kernel" all appear to be quite small - by themselves, they could fit on old floppies. 100 MB looks feasible if they threw away all of their compatibility stuff. But that's not gonna happen.