When you install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on your computer, the SP1 installer will not remove the older versions of Vista files from the hard drive. This is because the older files may be required in case you decide to uninstall SP1 later from the system.
Related Guide: How to Slipstream Vista DVD with SP1
Naturally, these files occupy important disk space. If you are satisfied with the performance of Windows Vista SP1 and are unlikely to remove it later, why not reclaim some disk space by removing all the older Vista files.
There are no manual steps involved. Just open your Windows command prompt and type vsp1cln.exe (short for Vista SP1 Cleaner). It takes less than a minute to execute.
*vsp1cln.exe is added to your Windows Vista System folder after you install Vista SP1.
This will make Windows Vista Service Pack 1 permanent on this computer. All the older files are deleted now and your hard disk has tons of extra space for other important files like videos and photos.
You computer need not be connected to the Internet for running the Vista SP1 cleaner tool. And you won’t be able to remove Windows Vista Service Pack 1 later.
Related: Cleaning Software for your Hard Drive
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/finish-install-windows-vista-sp1-clean-junk-files/2641/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Amit you are just brilliant with these small utilities that too so fast after just this SP1 has released.
Written by Nitin Rao on 03.20.08
How much space does this actually save?
Written by Dan on 03.20.08
How much space does this tool free?
Written by dicer999 on 03.21.08
how much disk space does this free up?
Written by Space Monkey on 03.21.08
around 1 to 1.5 gb i think
Written by Aadhu on 03.21.08
Vista Business 64bit, application does nothing, it’s running for few secs and then it’s reporting that not all files are removed. Still I can see SP1 in installed updates…
Written by stjohn on 03.24.08
My windows vista not genuine. if i install vista sp1 , what is wrong with my windows ?
Written by Milad on 03.24.08
If it isn’t genuine it isn’t legal, if it isn’t legal then installing sp1 will just give you more of a headache. If you have a stolen vista version you shouldn’t be talkin about it here.
Written by kNg kNo on 03.24.08
I have tried and it freed up around 1.5 GB
Written by Nafcom on 03.24.08
For some reason my copy of Vista (the SP1 Beta) copy doesn’t have this tool. Windows won’t let me change to the public release of SP1. Can someone upload a copy of the VSP1CLN.EXE file please?
Written by Coby on 03.28.08
Does anyone know of a way to do this in XP after installing SP3? Well as soon as we can get the final release of it that is. Right now I’m running SP3 v.5508, but I’ll have to uninstall that before installing the final release. I’m just wondering if there will be a nice cleanup utility for XP as well.
Written by Lantesh on 03.29.08
@Lantesh: I think this is not rquired for XP, you can simply delete them deleting the cached XP SP3 install folder or use tools like CCleaner
Written by Nafcom on 03.29.08
WARNING!
This will probably mean that you cannot carry out a repaiur install from your Vista disk in future!!
Written by Peter Reynolds on 04.11.08
Freed up 1GB on Vista x86 Ultimate - sweet :-)
Written by Ed on 04.12.08
Will this be necessary if you make a slipstreamed Vista SP1 installation DVD?
Written by Jeppe Andersen on 04.17.08
it freed 5.46 GB on ma pc DAMN!!!!!
++++performance in file transfer has improved
Written by PC ADDICT on 04.29.08
Will this be necessary if you make a slipstreamed Vista SP1 installation DVD?
YES, I just did it on a slipstreamed SP1 install of VHP, and frees up about 1GB
Written by Brett on 08.09.08
Thank you! I’ve spent hours cleaning up and repartitioning my daughter’s T61/Vista setup thanks to Lenovo’s cramming freeware, outdated backupfiles, and a service partition on the disk. Almost a quarter of the total space was wasted. Then I have to upgrade to SP 1 and more gigabytes gone. at least I got these back. IBM, Lenovo, Vista…boooooo, hisss. This site, YAY!
Written by Gary on 08.17.08
i installed SP1 update in my Toshiba laptop pre installed with vista. Now the windows does not even start. It has all the options of system restore, back up etc but none of the works. I have all my important files in my C drive. is there any way that i can recover all my files. Is it possible to install xp in the pther partation drive and recover my files..??
thanks a lot in advance
Written by anon on 08.30.08
Freed up about 4 gigs of hard drive space on my vista 64 bit… nice
Written by drew on 09.12.08
Free about 0.83 GB not as much as others but still useful all the same.
Written by anon on 10.11.08
wow, 1 GB free - really worthy of waisting our time on!
Really, What does 1GB do to your entire HD space? I bet your porn collection fills more that 200GB, dosent it? :P
Written by GeTTY on 11.13.08
If you are using it in a Virtual Machine then this is perfect. I am trying to get my VM installation under 8 gigs, but it probably isn’t possible. It would just be nice on my 8 gig flash stick. If anyone else knows how to safely remove thinks like Media Center or Unused drivers that would be great.
Written by Brant on 11.19.08
This freed up 880MB on my Vista 32-bit installation. Too bad I didn’t find out about it until now. Thanks.
Written by Alan Haynes on 01.23.09
@Getty: no 1.5 GB saved for me isn’t gonna make or break my HDD, but i would rather have the space available for my music and porn, instead of it being full of junk files.
Oh and it took my 35 seconds. Too bad i wasted my time.
Written by Daniel on 02.08.09