this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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Personally, I have never seen this many issues with Windows like today. Even way back in the Windows Vista days. Woah, Windows Vista will be 20 years old in November...

If you are forced to still be on Windows 11.

This file can be found in the following directory,

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\CapabilityAccessManager\

Then see if it shows a huge file size.

Windows Latest found that one particular file called “CapabilityAccessManager.db-wal” can use most of your system storage.

If your PC is affected, the safest fix is to install Windows 11 KB5095093 from Windows Update, or wait for the July 2026 Patch Tuesday update, where the fix is expected to roll out automatically.

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[–] UnpopularCrow@lemmy.world 72 points 15 hours ago (5 children)

Good information. However, the safest fix would be to delete the OS and install literally anything else (https://hannahmontana.sourceforge.net/). But alas, due to work constraints I understand some are stuck with Windows.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 63 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Literally says "if you are forced to use win 11" but ya saw an opportunity to be sanctimonious and positively leapt upon it.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 11 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Can you imagine the downvotes and likely bans if someone did the equivalent in a Linux thread?

[–] djdarren@piefed.social 3 points 7 hours ago

Ah, but Linux is faultless, so no such thread could ever happen.

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 27 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The fortunate thing with "windows because of work constraints" is that this is a work problem. Not a me problem.

[–] maturelemontree@lemmy.zip 6 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

Exactly. Sadly I need windows on my laptop for college which is voluntary, so I'm stuck with it until I'm done.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago

You mean voluntary in the sense that college is voluntary? By a similar logic, so is work?

[–] testaccount372920@piefed.zip 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] otter@lemmy.ca 9 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I had the same problem when I was in university. My concern with dual booting was if something went wrong, such as a bad windows update borking the bootloader. I didn't have easy access to a second device and I couldn't afford downtime during the term. There are also issues around clock sync or bios updates, and if you NEED windows for one course then its a pain to switch back and forth all day. Finally there are the unknown unknowns, I was new to Linux at the time and didn't know what could go wrong.

I made do with WSL and switched over when I graduated. Looking back, I probably could have switched much sooner, but I get the concern

[–] maturelemontree@lemmy.zip 4 points 12 hours ago

That's where I was at with it too. I have a desktop which is thankfully Linux and will stay that way, but I figured it was too much effort to have a half Linux/half microslop laptop too. I'll just suffer with a bad laptop until I finish my degree.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Your school didn't have computer labs? Ours had a bunch that were nearly always empty with all the software you would need for every course. I used them just because the screens were more comfortable than a laptop and it was often quiet in there.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

We do, but it's a lot easier to have a personal device that you can bring into lectures and labs, and then take home with you.

With some classes, it is expected that you have a personal device. There are laptops that you can borrow, but again you need to go in to borrow and return it each day and download/upload your files each time.

IMO what we need is a student society Linux user group that advocates for classes to drop bad software and confirms that a particular class is ok. This would help non-linux users too since some of the windows-macos-only software is straight up spyware.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Luckily my work still lets me use Win10 for as long as they give safety updates. Unfortunately for me, it‘s still Windows.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I really wanna install Linux on my surface pro X :(

[–] Elshender@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Can you not? I've installed linux on surface laptops before. Would have thought it'd be the same for their tabtops.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Nah, x is the weird Arm based one. I wonder if I could at least donate money or my device for the cause.

[–] Elshender@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 hours ago

Darn, I was thinking the Arm processor might have caused it. I think the surface laptop 6 is arm based. I wonder if that'd have the same problem.

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Misread the inflection on "Can you not?" and snorted

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Same, I felt attacked for a second there.

[–] Elshender@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago

I was genuinely curious! I'd never attack someone randomly online like that.

Ya idiot.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (3 children)

I messed up with one computer. It is a huge server with RAID on Windows 11 and like 100TB's of storage on it... No way I was going to risk it and accidentally erase the used storage while installing Linux. That is the only one on Windows 11 for me. If it was just 5TB's or something, I would just get an external hard drive to copy everything. But it is much more than that, not all of the 100TB's is used though. It has to sit on Windows 11.

[–] kalapala@sopuli.xyz 22 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Don't worry. Windows will auto update or update your storage driver and you will loose the data anyway! Good luck while it lasts.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 6 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Disconnect the drives and insert a new one and install Linux. Then reconnect the drives.

Or just unplug the SAS cable or whatever, depending on the hardware.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

That's the thing, will the new hardware read the RAID setup? OMG I think they are actually set up on legacy and GPT.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

That sounds like a problem that you should deal with even if you stay on Windows 😄 Maybe I just enjoy organizing things

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Do you have over 60TB's of storage that you need like me?

[–] teslekova@sh.itjust.works 5 points 12 hours ago

Well, is horse porn a want or a need?

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I do not and so I shouldn't be one to judge

Is it data that could be recovered if needed? That's where my concern is coming from. Not being able to back it up to fix OS issues might mean that you can't back it up at all

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Over 60,000 GB's. As stated, it is all in RAID. Unless I get a giant external one. Which I don't even know if that exists to buy. It would be super expensive if so.

[–] JaumeI@programming.dev 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Not talking here about Linux anymore. If you have the data in only one site, and the data is irreplaceable, you have a problem right now. Having it in a RAID gives you some breathing room, but you still should plan and execute a remote backup, somehow. At least for the really critical data. Fire, floods and other phenomena are hard or impossible to predict, and you could lose everything. If it's not that critical, and you simply don't want the hassle of moving 60TB, I can really empathize with that.

[–] Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

True, if anything happens to the drives, it is fucked.