i386 Folder. Is it needed?

[Jack Gillis]

I have, on my system drive, the i386 folder. It may have gotten there
when I installed SP2 or slipstreamed it into a bootable XP disc. As far
as I can tell, it serves little purpose and even though I've more than
enough free disk space I would like to remove it for it just adds to the
scan time for Ad-Aware, Spybot and NAV. I run these three often.

What is the groups advice on removing it?

Thank you very much.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Jack,

The C:\i386 folder contains WinXP's installation files and is added at
Windows setup. The files in this folder are accessed when new software
or hardware is added or installed. The folder is also used by System File
Checker, Windows File Protection, and repairing of the system. So the
best advise is to leave it be.

One alternative would be to burn the folder to a CD or DVD and delete it
from the hard drive. At this point the source path to these file will have
to
be changed in the registry.

Change the SourcePath value in this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

 

[Wislu Plethora]

I have, on my system drive, the i386 folder. It may have gotten there
when I installed SP2 or slipstreamed it into a bootable XP disc. As far
as I can tell, it serves little purpose and even though I've more than
enough free disk space I would like to remove it for it just adds to the
scan time for Ad-Aware, Spybot and NAV. I run these three often.

What is the groups advice on removing it?

Thank you very much.

What prevents you from excluding the folder(s) from scans?

 

[Jack Gillis]

Thank you.

Excellent suggestion. However I can't figure out how to exclude that
folder from Spybot and NAV. Adware is easy. I also wonder if it is
wise to have 'unscanned' things out there that might creep up and bite
sometime. Pending an answer to that I will just leave well enough
alone.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Thanks Bert. I think will just leave well enough alone for the time
being.

Hi Jack,

The C:\i386 folder contains WinXP's installation files and is added at
Windows setup. The files in this folder are accessed when new software
or hardware is added or installed. The folder is also used by System
File
Checker, Windows File Protection, and repairing of the system. So the
best advise is to leave it be.

One alternative would be to burn the folder to a CD or DVD and delete
it
from the hard drive. At this point the source path to these file will
have to
be changed in the registry.

Change the SourcePath value in this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup


--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/
How to Configure Outlook Express for Internet http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=171164

I have, on my system drive, the i386 folder. It may have gotten there
when I installed SP2 or slipstreamed it into a bootable XP disc. As
far as I can tell, it serves little purpose and even though I've more
than enough free disk space I would like to remove it for it just adds
to the scan time for Ad-Aware, Spybot and NAV. I run these three
often.

What is the groups advice on removing it?

Thank you very much.

 

[Marko]

Thank you.

Excellent suggestion. However I can't figure out how to exclude that
folder from Spybot and NAV. Adware is easy. I also wonder if it is
wise to have 'unscanned' things out there that might creep up and bite
sometime. Pending an answer to that I will just leave well enough
alone.

i don't think that is an issue, if a spy program gets put into I386 it
will still need a registry entry, which will be caught

--
Marko Jotic
"Common sense is anything but common".
From the notebooks of Lazarus Long. Robert A. Heinlein.
Handmade knives, antique designs, exotic materials at
http://www.knifeforging.com/