Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.

Do not remove updates. They take up little space and if you have some that
are more than 5 year old, then you do not have SP2 installed.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"grace" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:8C50FE79-D10B-4E71-9014-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
> older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
> hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:13:26 -0800, grace
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
> older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
> hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.


If you remove an update, you put the system back to the state it was
in before the update. Assuming that there was a good reason for the
update (probably a very safe assumption), removing them would be
foolhardy.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

The date and time was 1/22/2008 4:13 PM, and on a whim, grace pounded
out on the keyboard:

> Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
> older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
> hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.

Hi Grace,

Once you've installed an update and know it works properly, you can
remove them. I usually keep them for a few months.

To do it properly, do this:

Open Explorer and look for the oldest updates. Also open Add/Remove
Programs in Control Panel and make sure "Show Updates" is checked.

When you remove an update folder from Explorer, find the corresponding
update in Add/Remove programs. Click on the Remove button for that
update and you will get an error message stating it couldn't be found.
Follow through with it and the update will be removed from there.


--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

I think the poster is asking if he can delete the update files, not
uninstall the updates from the OS. I, personally, delete them
after 2 or 3 months of smooth running.

*TimDaniels*

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:
> grace wrote:
>
>> Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
>> older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
>> hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.
>
>
> If you remove an update, you put the system back to the state it was
> in before the update. Assuming that there was a good reason for the
> update (probably a very safe assumption), removing them would be
> foolhardy.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:37:55 -0800, "Timothy Daniels"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I think the poster is asking if he can delete the update files, not
> uninstall the updates from the OS.


Maybe so, but that's not what he asked. I am personally very reluctant
to make an assumption that he means something other than what he said.
That's an easy way to get someone into serious trouble.


> I, personally, delete them
> after 2 or 3 months of smooth running.


My personal practice is very different. These uninstall files
really take up very little room. Unless you are very short of disk
space, I think it's safer to keep them even if you think you'll never
need them, just in case.



> *TimDaniels*
>
> "Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:
> > grace wrote:
> >
> >> Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
> >> older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
> >> hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.
> >
> >
> > If you remove an update, you put the system back to the state it was
> > in before the update. Assuming that there was a good reason for the
> > update (probably a very safe assumption), removing them would be
> > foolhardy.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
> > Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup