Windows Vista: Freeing Up Disk Space After Installing SP1

Now that Windows Vista SP1 has finally been released, the following tip may come in handy if you need to free up a few hundred megabytes of disk space on your system.

SP1 includes an uninstall feature that allows you to remove the the update if you decide you don't want it. This feature works by moving all the pre-SP1 files to a temporary location on the hard drive during the install of the update. These files can consume about 800MB of storage on your drive.

If you need the disk space, and you're sure you want to keep SP1 installed on your computer. Then there is a command that you can use that will remove these files, and free up space on your hard drive. Although by removing these files, you lose the ability to uninstall SP1.

There is a special tool called the 'Windows Vista SP1 Files Removal Tool' that is automatically installed when you run the update on your system. To access this tool follow the instructions below:

• Open a command prompt by typing "CMD" then press Ctrl-Shift-Enter in the search field under the Start menu. This will open the command prompt in an administrator mode (note: if you have the UAC enabled, you will receive a UAC prompt).
• In the command prompt type "vsp1cln.exe"