spritz said:
/Vanguard/ said:
Exactly as stated: WINDOWS/SOFTWAREDISTRIBUTION/DOWNLOAD
Oh, exactly, huh? First it was:
"Windows Software Distribution Download"
but now it is different but somehow exactly as before, and is:
"WINDOWS/SOFTWAREDISTRIBUTION/DOWNLOAD"
with additional slashes (and forward slashes instead of backslashes), some
spaces now gone, but with no drive designator or root path specified.
A little inspection inside "C:\Windows|SoftwareDistribution\Download" shows
it is used by Windows Update. A simple search at Microsoft's HUGE support
knowledgebase on "SoftwareDistribution" turned up just 10 articles, one of
which was
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=883821. So that folder is a
local database of your Windows Updates.
You could try moving the files and folders *under* that path (but not the
path itself) to see if Windows Update still works for you. If WU fails then
move the files back; else, delete them from wherever you moved them. I
suppose there is the possibility that the files here are used when you
choose to uninstall something you installed before but now it won't be there
to perform the uninstall (i.e., after deletion, you won't be able to undo an
install). If these files are no longer needed, this is just another case of
Microsoft wasting your disk space for superfluous files. You might also
have to stop the Automatic Updates service before deleting.
