How to Delete VSS Shadows or Snapshots

Is your server running slow due to having dozens of orphaned VSS shadows or snapshots?

VSS can impact server performance and slow down Windows considerably.

On a Windows Server you can use VSSUIRUN.EXE from the command prompt (run as admin) to inspect VSS settings.

You’ll want to delete all scheduled shadows and delete all existing shadows on each drive. As a preventative measure you’ll also want to set the VSS storage area size limit to ‘unbounded’.

On PCs as well as Windows Servers you can also use VSSADMIN:

vssadmin list shadows

and

vssadmin delete shadows /all

To resize the shadow area limit, use

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=c: /maxsize=UNBOUNDED

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