VirtualBox

Reducing Windows VB footprint

pagefile.sys

• Click Start
• Right Click on Computer and click 'Properties'
• Advanced System Settings
• Click 'Settings' in the Performance box under the 'Advanced' Tab (should be already selected).
• Click the 'Advanced' Tab
• Click 'change' under the Virtual Memory box.
• Uncheck automatically manage page filing file size for all drives.
• Tune to your need; you can also move it to another shared drive
• Click OK.

Cleaning

1. BleachBit free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history, shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn't know was there
2. Windows "disk cleanup" in Control Panel
3. Sysinternals sdelete to zeroize free space:

sdelete -z

VirtualBox

1. Delete all snapshots
2. Compact drive

VBoxManage modifyhd windows.vdi --compact

or copy it, changing the format on-the-fly if needed

VBoxManage clonehd windows.vdi windows.vmdk --format VMDK

And do a snapshot again if desired