Deleting Hidden UNinstall files/folders

[- Bobb -]

Do you folks keep these files/folders forever ?
Rainy day here and cleaning up PCs - ran ccleaner and this PC has 230mb
of uninstall info, such as
$MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$
$NtUninstallKB898461$
from 2004 , others up to 2007

I was thinking - if I installed a KB in 2004 , I'm PROBABLY not going to
uninstall it now, right ?
So I was thinking maybe delete all of them prior to ~9/06.
Any feedback ?

 

[Dave Patrick]

Don't delete the $hf_mig$ directory as this is a general distribution
release store. The others are hotfix and service pack uninstall routines. If
you're sure you'll never need to back down then you can delete them.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Christopher Kurtis Koeber]

Check this out:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

Regards,
Christopher Koeber

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Do you folks keep these files/folders forever ?
Rainy day here and cleaning up PCs - ran ccleaner and this PC has
230mb of uninstall info, such as
$MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$
$NtUninstallKB898461$
from 2004 , others up to 2007

I was thinking - if I installed a KB in 2004 , I'm PROBABLY not going
to uninstall it now, right ?
So I was thinking maybe delete all of them prior to ~9/06.
Any feedback ?

Here's my view:

Yes, you can delete tham (all except the $hf_mig$ one). You will lose the
ability to ever uninstall the associated hotfix, but if you are sure you
will never need to, go ahead. Go to MVP Doug Knox's site,
http://www.dougknox.com/, click on "Win XP Utilities" on the left, then
choose "Remove Hotfix Backups"

Personally, unless you need the disk space, I'd recommend leaving all of
them there, just in case. And if you need the space that badly, deleting
them would just be a stopgap measure anyway, and you need to buy a larger
drive. 230MB may sound like a big number, but it's really tiny. These days
it represents less than 25 US cents worth of disk space.

 

[- Bobb -]

Here's my view:

Yes, you can delete tham (all except the $hf_mig$ one). You will lose
the ability to ever uninstall the associated hotfix, but if you are
sure you will never need to, go ahead. Go to MVP Doug Knox's site,
http://www.dougknox.com/, click on "Win XP Utilities" on the left,
then choose "Remove Hotfix Backups"

Personally, unless you need the disk space, I'd recommend leaving all
of them there, just in case. And if you need the space that badly,
deleting them would just be a stopgap measure anyway, and you need to
buy a larger drive. 230MB may sound like a big number, but it's really
tiny. These days it represents less than 25 US cents worth of disk
space.

I have plenty of drives/disk space - just trying to "clean up".
I thought it might clean up registry too - if not -I'll leave as-is .
Thanks

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have plenty of drives/disk space - just trying to "clean up".
I thought it might clean up registry too - if not -I'll leave as-is .

Nope, there is *no* value to doing this except for reclaiming the disk space
it uses.

My view is perhaps a minority one, but I am very much against the concept of
"cleaning up." Many people have what seems to be an obsession about getting
rid of every file, registry entry, etc. that they don't absolutely need. I
think that that's among the most dangerous points of view you can have.

If you are running an office and you have a file folder in your file cabinet
relating to some litigation that happened several years ago, and you're sure
you no longer need it, should you throw it out? If you need the space in the
cabinet, maybe. But if you don't need the space, it's a lot safer to just
keep the file folder. Other than saving the space, there's no benefit to
throwing it out.

It's exactly the same with computers. Cleanliness, in this case, is not next
to Godliness.

 

[Rock]

I have plenty of drives/disk space - just trying to "clean up".
I thought it might clean up registry too - if not -I'll leave as-is .
Thanks

Cleaning up the registry is a nebulous concept. Unused entries in the
registry do not, as a rule, cause problems or slowdowns and for the most
part there is no need to "clean" the registry. Do not use a registry
cleaner. They can cause more harm than good.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Cleaning up the registry is a nebulous concept. Unused
entries in the registry do not, as a rule, cause problems or
slowdowns and for the most part there is no need to "clean"
the registry. Do not use a registry cleaner. They can cause
more harm than good.

How about registry compacters? PCWorld mentioned a
registry optimizer called NTREGOPT (see:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ ). It's
freeware. All it does is compact the registry much like a file
defragmenter, and it "improves your system's performance
by removing fragmented sections that can develope as you
install and uninstall applications over time", according to
PCWorld (April, 2006, p. 80). Is there any value in defragging
the registry?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rock]

How about registry compacters? PCWorld mentioned a
registry optimizer called NTREGOPT (see:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ ). It's
freeware. All it does is compact the registry much like a file
defragmenter, and it "improves your system's performance
by removing fragmented sections that can develope as you
install and uninstall applications over time", according to
PCWorld (April, 2006, p. 80). Is there any value in defragging
the registry?

*TimDaniels*

I don't know with hard evidence. I have used NTREGOPT in XP. It's by the
same author who wrote ERUNT. I have seen it reduce the size of the
registry. As I understand the space from deleted items is not normally
recovered, and what NTREOPT does is recover this space, essentially
compacting it. I can't see that it really does much good other than to
reduce the size if the registry. I suppose this could be significant of the
amount or reduction was significant. But unlike a registry cleaner I don't
see where it can do any harm just by this compaction.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I don't know with hard evidence. I have used NTREGOPT in XP. It's
by the same author who wrote ERUNT. I have seen it reduce the size
of the registry. As I understand the space from deleted items is not
normally recovered, and what NTREOPT does is recover this space,
essentially compacting it. I can't see that it really does much good
other than to reduce the size if the registry. I suppose this could
be significant of the amount or reduction was significant. But
unlike a registry cleaner I don't see where it can do any harm just
by this compaction.

That's generally my view, too. I don't think there's any particular risk in
using it, but I don't know of any particular benefit either.