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It’s important to understand the there is a difference when you “Close” a Web Part and deleting it via the “Modify Shared Web Page” or Site Actions/Edit Page.

Closing a Web Part essentially hides it.  If you Close the web part you can use SharePoint Designer and view the ASPX page, in this case the default.aspx page and you’ll see the hidden (grayed out) web part.

If you delete the web part, it physically deletes the web part from the page. 

Deleting the web part via Page Edit mode.

Web part is deleted from page as viewed from SharePoint Designer.

So why is this minutia important to know.  Well, it’s about load time and resources.  Closing the web part still loads the web part invisible to the users, hence it requires time and resources to load the web part.

The hidden Web Part Maintenance page

Now, if you’ve used the Close option and want to clean up and delete those old parts you can use the Web Part Maintenance page.  The problem is it’s not on any of the SharePoint administration links (at least none I could find), so you have to use one of the following URL query string command to get to it.

• http://<server>/_layouts/spcontnt.aspx?&url=default.aspx
• http://<server>/default.aspx?contents=1

Once your on the Web Part Maintenance page you can delete the web part for Personal or Shared use.

SharePoint, Web Part sharepoint, web part