Can I delete these folders?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill P
  • Start date Start date
B

Bill P

Hi
Using WinXP SP3
There are a couple of folders in C/windows named "Downloaded Programs" and
"Downloaded Installations". They are mainly .msi and .dll files . Can these
be deleted? They seem to relate to stuff I have downloaded and tried in the
past and also free virus scans.
Regards Bill
 
Bill said:
Hi
Using WinXP SP3
There are a couple of folders in C/windows named "Downloaded Programs" and
"Downloaded Installations". They are mainly .msi and .dll files . Can
these be deleted? They seem to relate to stuff I have downloaded and tried
in the past and also free virus scans.
Regards Bill
Click to expand...

You can delete the *items* inside the folders if you are 100% sure you no
longer have the programs installed. Do not delete the *folders*.

Malke
 
You should not normally delete anything inside windows folder. Some of these
..msi's and dll's may be required by your installed applications. The windows
installer service keeps a copy of the installed msi files in the msi cache
and these files may be required along with the cache. Run the following
script to check if any of these msi files are associated with installed
applications. copy the following lines in a .vbs file and save it on your
desktop. then double click the vbs file to execute the script. it will create
a csv file readable in excel which will give you a list of all installed
applications, msi cache etc

On error resume next
Dim sComputerName,WMI_Obj,WMI_ObjProps,ObjClsItem
sComputerName=InputBox("Enter Computer Name: . for local computer
","Select target computer",".")
If Len(Trim(sComputerName)) = 0 Then sComputerName = "."
Set WMI_Obj = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & sComputerName & "\root\cimv2")
Set WMI_ObjProps = WMI_Obj.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Product", , 48)

Set filesys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set results = filesys.CreateTextFile("Win32_Product_output.csv")
results.writeline "AssignmentType, Caption, Description, HelpLink,
HelpTelephone, IdentifyingNumber, InstallDate, InstallDate2, InstallLocation,
InstallSource, InstallState, Language, LocalPackage, Name, PackageCache,
PackageCode, PackageName, ProductID, RegCompany, RegOwner, SKUNumber,
Transforms, URLInfoAbout, URLUpdateInfo, Vendor, Version, WordCount, "

For Each ObjClsItem in WMI_ObjProps
results.writeline ObjClsItem.AssignmentType & "," & ObjClsItem.Caption &
"," & ObjClsItem.Description & "," & ObjClsItem.HelpLink & "," &
ObjClsItem.HelpTelephone & "," & ObjClsItem.IdentifyingNumber & "," &
ObjClsItem.InstallDate & "," & ObjClsItem.InstallDate2 & "," &
ObjClsItem.InstallLocation & "," & ObjClsItem.InstallSource & "," &
ObjClsItem.InstallState & "," & ObjClsItem.Language & "," &
ObjClsItem.LocalPackage & "," & ObjClsItem.Name & "," &
ObjClsItem.PackageCache & "," & ObjClsItem.PackageCode & "," &
ObjClsItem.PackageName & "," & ObjClsItem.ProductID & "," &
ObjClsItem.RegCompany & "," & ObjClsItem.RegOwner & "," &
ObjClsItem.SKUNumber & "," & ObjClsItem.Transforms & "," &
ObjClsItem.URLInfoAbout & "," & ObjClsItem.URLUpdateInfo & "," &
ObjClsItem.Vendor & "," & ObjClsItem.Version & "," & ObjClsItem.WordCount &
"," & " "


Next

Wscript.Echo "Done ! Check Win32_Product_output.csv"
 
Using WinXP SP3
There are a couple of folders in C/windows named "Downloaded Programs" and
"Downloaded Installations". They are mainly .msi and .dll files . Can these
be deleted? They seem to relate to stuff I have downloaded and tried in the
past and also free virus scans.
Click to expand...

If in doubt, tidy your hard drive by a two-step process.
1. Make a new folder C:\Park and MOVE into it all these files.
Reboot and run as normal.
2. If you get any error messages "file not found" you can
probably tell whether they are trying to call files you have
relocated -- and you can put them back. But if you get no
error messages after running in a couple of weeks all the
apps you commonly use you can simply remove C:\Park
and all its contents.
 
Malke said:
You can delete the *items* inside the folders if you are 100% sure you no
longer have the programs installed. Do not delete the *folders*.

Malke
Click to expand...

Thanks Malke
As an example, in the "Downloaded Installations" there are a number of
sub-folders named eg {581DFC98-4745-4215-990E-081D7F86DDD0} inside which is
a single file "WinPatrol.msi".

I do have WinPatrol installed on my machine. Is it still necessary to retain
the .msi file?

Bill
 
Bill said:
Thanks Malke
As an example, in the "Downloaded Installations" there are a number of
sub-folders named eg {581DFC98-4745-4215-990E-081D7F86DDD0} inside which
is a single file "WinPatrol.msi".

I do have WinPatrol installed on my machine. Is it still necessary to
retain the .msi file?
Click to expand...

As I said:

So if you don't have WinPatrol any more (you properly uninstalled it), then
you can safely delete the entry.

Malke
 
Don Phillipson said:
If in doubt, tidy your hard drive by a two-step process.
1. Make a new folder C:\Park and MOVE into it all these files.
Reboot and run as normal.
2. If you get any error messages "file not found" you can
probably tell whether they are trying to call files you have
relocated -- and you can put them back. But if you get no
error messages after running in a couple of weeks all the
apps you commonly use you can simply remove C:\Park
and all its contents.
Click to expand...

Thanks Don, I'll do that.
Regards Bill
 
Bill P said:
Hi
Using WinXP SP3
There are a couple of folders in C/windows named "Downloaded Programs" and
"Downloaded Installations". They are mainly .msi and .dll files . Can
these be deleted? They seem to relate to stuff I have downloaded and tried
in the past and also free virus scans.
Regards Bill
Click to expand...

I presume in at least some cases you paid good money for
these installation files. If there's any doubt, such as whether
you will ever want to use the software in the future, or such
as whether you really truly know what the software is, why
get rid of it? Disk space is cheap. MHO.
 
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