L
Larry Joseph
In the Windows folder, I have a large number of files such as:
$NtUninstallKB873339$. Can these be safely removed?
$NtUninstallKB873339$. Can these be safely removed?
S
Shenan Stanley
Larry said:
Yes. For the most part.
As long as you never want to undo any of the Windows XP Hotfixes (those are
the uninstall files...)
If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
Your question seems to represent you as someone looking to free up disk
space... Along those lines:
How large is your hard disk drive anyway?
How large are the partition(s) on said hard disk drive?
If you don't know - now is a fine time to find out.
- Open 'My Computer'.
- Find your hard disk drive listed there (usually at least 'Local Disk
(C
') and right-click on it.- Choose 'Properties'.
- You should see (under the General tab) three numbers...
- Free Space
- Used Space
- Capacity
- Come back and respond here with those three numbers as shown.
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..
When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
(You may want to turn this off on your system.. 3GB?!)
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 512MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Other ways to free up space..
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.
J
JS
$ntuninstall files:
They are the un-install files and folders for each of the Microsoft updates
(most are security updates) you have installed on your PC.
The numbers following the letters KB are the numbers that identifies the
update and can be used to search Microsoft's Knowledge Base for
the details about a specific update.
For example: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873339/en-us
You can delete them but you will no longer be able to un-install the update
they represent.
Since most of these updates are security updates they don't take much drive
space and if you have a large drive and if you don't need the disk space,
leave
them be as the space you gain may not be worth the effort and
the small amount of risk.
JS
They are the un-install files and folders for each of the Microsoft updates
(most are security updates) you have installed on your PC.
The numbers following the letters KB are the numbers that identifies the
update and can be used to search Microsoft's Knowledge Base for
the details about a specific update.
For example: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873339/en-us
You can delete them but you will no longer be able to un-install the update
they represent.
Since most of these updates are security updates they don't take much drive
space and if you have a large drive and if you don't need the disk space,
leave
them be as the space you gain may not be worth the effort and
the small amount of risk.
JS
K
Ken Blake, MVP
Larry said:
Probably. But read below
These are the uninstall files for hotfixes you have installed. If you delete
one of these files, you will never be able to uninstall its associated
hotfix.
So if you've had the hotfixes installed for a while a problem, it's
reasonable to expect that you will never need to uninstall them, and ithat
it's safe to delete them.
However, these don't take up a lot of disk space. Unless you are very short
of space, I would leave them alone, on the premise that, no matter how
unlikely, it's always possible that you may some day need to uninstall one
of these hotfixes.
K
Ken Blake, MVP
Larry said:
System Restore is a feature that provides valuable protection, and it would
be foolhardy to turn it off. However the default 12% of the drive that it
takes is way too much for most people. A restore point is not a backup
technique. It backs up nothing but the operating system. It's meant only to
be a quick and easy way to recover from a recent problem by reverting the
operating system to the state it was in a few days or at most a week so so
ago. If you try to use System Restore to go back more than a week or two,
you end up getting all sorts of things out of synch with the restored
operating system files, and typically create more problems than you solve.
I would lower it to whatever gives to 10-12 days of restore
points--somewhere around 2GB.
Freeing up space will not make your machine run any faster.
If you have used 30GB of a 33GB drive, you need to realize that whatever you
do to free up space will only be a drop in the bucket--a stopgap measure at
best. It's probably time to bite the bullet and buy another drive (either to
replace what you have or, better, add to it). Fortunately hard drives are
very inexpensive right now. You can find an 80GB for around $50US or so if
you shop around on the internet.
--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
G
Gerry Cornell
Larry
It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb.
Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this
time
find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and
exit.
When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.
If you are using the Norton Protected Recycle Bin or Rollback RX Pro
these can create significant free disk space issues. The programmes
create hidden folders, which can grow to colossal sizes.
Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is
that
for temporary internet files especially if you do not store offline
copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on
your
attitude to offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In
Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary
Internet Files, Settings to make the change. At the same time look at
the number of days history is held.
The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on
your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move
the
slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get too full
as
if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will bypass the
Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.
If your C drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises
with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your
C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder
typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$ etc.
These
files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the text of
the
folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed you can
compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to save
Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained by
deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is only
an
option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.
Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select
Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More
Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System Restore
point. Run Disk Defragmenter. Follow this procedure for each partition
in turn.
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is likely that an allocation of 12% has been made to System Restore
on your C partition which is over generous. I would reduce it to 700
mb.
Right click your My Computer icon on the Desktop and select System
Restore. Place the cursor on your C drive select Settings but this
time
find the slider and drag it to the left until it reads 700 mb and
exit.
When you get to the Settings screen click on Apply and OK and exit.
If you are using the Norton Protected Recycle Bin or Rollback RX Pro
these can create significant free disk space issues. The programmes
create hidden folders, which can grow to colossal sizes.
Another default setting on a large drive which could be wasteful is
that
for temporary internet files especially if you do not store offline
copies on disk. The default allocation is 3% of drive. Depending on
your
attitude to offline copies you could reduce this to 1% or 2%. In
Internet Explorer select Tools, Internet Options, General, Temporary
Internet Files, Settings to make the change. At the same time look at
the number of days history is held.
The default allocation for the Recycle Bin is 10 % of drive. Change to
5%, which should be sufficient. In Windows Explorer place the cursor
on
your Recycle Bin, right click and select Properties, Global and move
the
slider from 10% to 5%. However, try to avoid letting it get too full
as
if it is full and you delete a file by mistake it will bypass the
Recycle Bin and be gone for ever.
If your C drive is formatted as NTFS another potential gain arises
with
your operating system on your C drive. In the Windows Directory of
your
C partition you will have some Uninstall folders in your Windows
folder
typically: $NtServicePackUninstall$ and $NtUninstallKB282010$ etc.
These
files may be compressed or not compressed. If compressed the text of
the
folder name appears in blue characters. If not compressed you can
compress them. Right click on each folder and select Properties,
General, Advanced and check the box before Compress contents to save
Disk Space. On the General Tab you can see the amount gained by
deducting the size on disk from the size. Folder compression is only
an
option on a NTFS formatted drive / partition.
Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp to
Empty your Recycle Bin and Remove Temporary Internet Files. Also
select
Start, All Programs, accessories, System Tools, Disk CleanUp, More
Options, System Restore and remove all but the latest System Restore
point. Run Disk Defragmenter. Follow this procedure for each partition
in turn.
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
G
Guest
Gerry,
I have a 3 year old Thinkpad X31 with a 34GB hard drive. The problem is
that almost all the space is taken up. My Windows folder is over 18GB. I
followed your recommedations but still only have 1.5GB free. I have
Norton,so is there a way to check if I have a protected Recylcle Bin and is
there anyway of significantly shrinking the Windows folder?
Thanks
I have a 3 year old Thinkpad X31 with a 34GB hard drive. The problem is
that almost all the space is taken up. My Windows folder is over 18GB. I
followed your recommedations but still only have 1.5GB free. I have
Norton,so is there a way to check if I have a protected Recylcle Bin and is
there anyway of significantly shrinking the Windows folder?
Thanks
S
Shenan Stanley
Andrew said:
If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?
You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..
How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312
You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..
When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:
- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.
You can control how much space your System Restore can use...
1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.
You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...
Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 512MB..
- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 128MB and 512MB. (Betting it is MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.
You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:
Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Other ways to free up space..
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.