“I searched my hard drive and found two DISM.exe files, one in system32 and one in syswow64 — neither works.” This gets a little murky. According to a related Microsoft TechNet page, DISM does have some 32-/64-bit flexibility and can let you “Service a 32-bit image from a 64-bit host and service a 64-bit image from a 32-bit host.” But the DISM operation we’re talking about is all on one host — the “image” is the actual, installed-and-running operating system. Things get further confused by the action of the Windows-on-Windows subsystem (that’s the WOW64 folder you found). WOW64 is used by 64-bit Windows to run 32-bit software. (For more info on WOW64, see the MSDN article, “Running 32-bit applications,” or the Wikipedia item.) The combination of tools with different bittedness, and the aggressive “let me take over” actions of the WOW64 subsystem, can make seemingly simple system-management tasks much harder on a 64-bit setup than you might expect. Although the solutions get a bit geeky, there is help available from others who experienced exactly the same type of DISM errors as you, Kirk. See, for example, the myitforum.com thread on “Installing 64-bit Win7 admin tools” and the Nynaeve post on suppressing WOW64 filesystem redirection. Chrome becomes a memory hog Juli Roznowski is one of several readers whose copy of Chrome has suddenly started grabbing large amounts of RAM. Worse, when this happens, Chrome won’t release the RAM until it’s completely closed and restarted — from scratch. “Have you heard anything about Google Chrome hogging memory? I have machines running into this all the time. I’ve seen plenty of articles/comments about this issue. It makes me think Chrome is not a viable option as a browser. Any comments or opinions on this? Thanks.” The most common culprits are plugins (software added to enhance the browser) that have run amok. Antivirus and anti-malware plugins seem to be the most common offenders. Fortunately, the fix is easy. Open Chrome and type (or copy/paste) the following into the address bar: chrome://plugins/ As you can see in Figure 3, the resulting browser page lists all currently installed Chrome plugins. Figure 3. Chrome's plugins manager lets you review, enable, and disable installed plugins. Click the Disable links one by one, until you find the plugin that was causing the memory problems. (It’s a good idea to restart Chrome after each change, even if the browser doesn’t prompt you to.) Once you’ve identified the memory hog, you can permanently uninstall the offending plugin — and/or find replacement software that gets along better with Chrome! Each version of Windows has its own best way of reducing the clutter. I previously answered a reader's question about Win7's WinSxS. Here's what to do on other Windows versions. Reducing WinSxS clutter on XP and Vista The April 5 article, "Shrink that gigantic WinSxS folder down to size," focused specifically on Windows 7 and described the Win7 Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool. That story generated more reader follow up questions than usual, some of which appear below. I'll start with a letter from Peter Pfefferkorn: "In the [April 5] issue of Windows Secrets, Fred Langa talks about how to shrink that gigantic WinSxS folder down to size in Windows 7. There is no mention of how to do that in Windows XP. How can I shrink it on XP?" Before I get to the specifics of XP (and Vista), let me restate three important points from the original article. 1) The stabilization benefits of the WinSxS subsystem are real, so you shouldn't fool with the WinSxS folder or subsystem without good cause. 2) As always, make a full backup before doing any significant system maintenance. 3) Follow these steps to help reduce WinSxS and general clutter on all Windows versions: Uninstall unneeded software. Removing unnecessary software not only removes the software itself but also deletes any of that software's associated files from the WinSxS folder. Perform a thorough general cleanup, Part 1. Start with Windows' built-in cleanmgr.exe. For full instructions, see the March 13, 2008, article, "Using Windows' hidden Disk Cleanup options." Perform a thorough general cleanup, Part 2. Run a reputable system cleanup-tool, such as CCleaner (site) to make sure the common forms of unneeded temporary files are deleted. It will also correct any Registry errors that the previous steps may have accidentally introduced. Now, for some OS-specific tips. ► Windows XP uses an early version of the WinSxS subsystem. Among other things, XP does not store backups and safety copies of DLLs associated with Windows Update files in the WinSxS folder. Instead, it stores them in the normal \Windows folder. XP's WinSxS-type files and folders are usually named following this pattern: $NtUninstall{xxx}$ The {xxx} variable is usually the identifier for a specific patch. Folder $NtUninstallKB2079403$, for example, contains the WinSxS-type backups and safety copies of .dlls and other files related to KB 2079403. (See Figure 1.) You can manually delete $NtUninstall{xxx}$ files from XP's \Windows folder. You need those files only when a Windows update fails and you (or the OS) have to roll back the system. If your system is working fine after an update, $NtUninstall files serve no purpose and can be deleted. [caption id="attachment_11597" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Figure 1. XP stores its Windows Update rollback/uninstall files in the main \Windows folder rather than in a dedicated WinSxS subfolder."][/caption] Once you've deleted unneeded $NtUninstall files, you'll have accomplished manually on XP what Windows 7's DISM cleanup does automatically. ► Windows Vista's WinSxS system is more advanced than XP's but still less developed than Win7's. Vista ships with its own Windows Component Cleaning Tool — compcln.exe. From an admin-level command box, type the following command and press Enter: C:\Windows\system32\compcln As shown in Figure 2, follow the prompts (e.g., press Y when prompted to continue) and let the software run to completion. [caption id="attachment_11597" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Vista's Windows Component Cleaning Tool, compcln.exe, automatically removes redundant and unneeded Update files from Vista's WinSxS subsystem."][/caption] ► In Windows 7, of course, you should use the DISM tool described in the April 5 article. A WS site error mangles DISM location Kirk Bubul ran into a problem when trying to follow the instructions for using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool, covered in the April 5 article. "My system has Windows 7 Home Premium SP1. There is no such folder as C:\WindowsSystem32DISM on my system. So the command line you said to run to shrink your WinSxS folder fails to execute.

"What's the correct command line?" Sorry about that, Kirk! The e-mail copies of the Windows Secrets newsletter contained the correct path, but the version originally posted on the website somehow lost its backslashes! In any case, the correct path is: C:\Windows\System32\DISM The Web version of the file has now been corrected. Again, sorry! DISM difficulties on a 64-bit Windows system Arnold Fanzoi also encountered a snag in trying to run DISM on his PC. "I am running Win7 x64 and get an error message that I can't use 32-bit DISM. Is there a 64-bit version, and how do I get it?