A nice tip for shrinking VM Player VMDK files

Some of my VM’s used by VMware player are growing very large, so needed to shrink them:

method followed –

1. Delete from c:\windows all update backups > they are having usually the $ in front of the name
2. Delete everything from temp: cmd>> del *.* %temp%
3. If using MSSQL > check your DB has “simple” recovery model, > MSSQL Management Studio > select your DB > properties > Options >Recovery Model > set “simple”
4. Shrink DB files> MSSQL Management Studio > select your DB > rightclick > Tasks > Shrink Database
5. Last not least do not forget to delete any stuff that is not needed from Desktop and similar places
6. If you install Adobe CS suite,  just  the required modules eg ID/IC instead all modules (PS, Illustrator,Acrobat,…) you save multiple GB here.