You can reign in some of the space take up by XP itself: limit the amount of
space available to System Restore Files and Internet History. Both these are
usually up to 500Mb each.
ALso, if you want to recover some of those hundreds of Mb of space taken up
by Windows Xp Updates [the files that are downloaded onto your Hard Disk],
you should not be tempted to "uninstall" any "Hotfixes" listed in the Add or
Remove Programs section as they are listed there in the event your computer
does not function properly after they are installed.
Uninstalling them will uninstall the actual patches which were downloaded
and installed from the Windows Update website.
If you wish to safely remove the "uninstall files" for the Hotfixes (i.e.
$NtUninstallQxxxxxx$ files shown in Windows Explorer) and cleanup your
Add/Remove Programs list, visit MS-MVP Doug Knox's excellent website for
instructions.
Remove Hotfix Backup files and the Add/Remove Programs Registry entries
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm
Note: Doug's program only removes the uninstall files and Hotfix entries in
the Add/Remove Programs listing. It does not remove the actual updates.
Don't forget to do a disk Defrag after a major cleanup as it will help your
system performance.
