ReflectedSchemas folder in the user's AppData folder (Visual Studio)

Question

Today I ran WinDirStat to check what is filling up my harddisk. I was surprised to see that this folder contains 4.6 GB (!):

C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\ReflectedSchemas

What is the purpose of this folder and the files it contains? Is there a way to get rid of these files in a safe way?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I've tried to empty the folder completely, and have no problems found since i've done. When launching a project in VS, a new schema was created.

Edit: you can also move the folder and put it back when you believe you screwed things up...

Answer 2

This drives me crazy and hopefully it will be fixed in VS 2010; however, I found another solution to this problem.

My "fix" is to use the "Junction" tool to map the folder to another drive. If you're like me and have a second drive, then you can use window's Junction tool to create something like a symbolic link to map the folder to another drive.

Best of all, you no longer need to use the command line. This freeware tool works great: Junction Link Magic.

Answer 3

These files caused problems for me because I was using Windows' Roaming Profiles feature, so I symlinked (created symbolic links for) them to the Local AppData folder:

cd %APPDATA%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0
mklink /D ReflectedSchemas ..\..\..\..\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\ReflectedSchemas
mklink /D ReflectedTypeLibs ..\..\..\..\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\ReflectedTypeLibs

If your needs/problems regarding these files differ from mine, you can link them to a different folder, even on a different partition. (You can use the /J switch instead of /D, and in this case, it probably won't matter, but it does help to know the differences between the different types of links.)