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I have a number of old files for XP updates and hotfixes that are residing on and cluttering up my hard drive.
Can I safely delete them to free up disc space and if so what is a good program to delete them, or should I just use Add/Delete Programs?
If you mean the blue files lin the Windows folder. I used CCleaner on them and got rid of the lot...
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Don't use Add/Remove. As per says, you will be uninstalling the updates if you do that.
You can remove them from within the Windows folder. Just highlight them in Explorer and delete them. I usually remove anything older than a day or two.
Run a defrag after you've deleted them.
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"per" - wow! I never knew that! I have ccleaner and will use that.
I also have Java updates 2 and 3, both 111mB's. Can they go too?
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I don't know about the Java's. You can delete them and if Java needs them it will reinstall them I suppose.
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I have run ccleaner thanks. Note the question above re two installed Java updates.
Under "Advanced" it also offers a "Hotfixes uninstall".
This box is not ticked by default. Is it safe to delete the 253mb thats in HU?
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Per said If you elect to delete them in add/remove that will uninstall the update.
Not only that - Microsoft has warned HERE that if you remove Windows updates ($NtUninstall files) in the wrong order, your Windows may stop functioning.
i_Xp/VistaUser
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Hi XpUser. I think that means removing the updates themselves out of sequence, which makes sense, not the uninstall files. I regularly go into the windows folder and select a bunch of uninstall files and delete them with no problem.
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Good idea to leave them there for awile anyway. MSoft has occasionally sent out updates that are bad for one reason or another and need to be removed. Once you delete those blue files you won't be able to remove any of those updates.
I really don't understand the fettish over removing files like the above mentioned. If you are getting tight on space then it makes sense. However in the grand scheme of things there are most likely many other files residing on the drive that are more suitable candidates for deletion. When I am of a mind to clean house, if you will, I insert the trusty CDR. At 12 cents a piece I can afford to burn all that stuff, just in case.
If you want to conserve space check the size limit on your IE temp folder. By default that thing is huge. I have cleaned up computers that had 35,000 temp files in that folder.
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"clean up" and "ATF" are both free cleaners that will take care of a lot the crap that builds up in temp folders and prefetch and dat files. Also turn remove all but the latest system restore files will open a lot of space as well.
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Thank you GAZAPEE for starting this thread. I've always wondered about those $ntuninstall files but was hesitant to delete them. So after reading the replies, I first did a Ghost backup(just in case things went South) and then deleted the files,ran a registry cleaning program and followed by defrag. No problems and my software hogs Adobe Elements and Pinnacle Studio load up faster.
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