$NtServicePackUninstall$

R

RN1

What are the folders $NtServicePackUninstall$ in C:\WINDOWS for? Can
they be deleted permanently without any negative impact on WinXP?
There are more than 150 such folders & some of them consume quite a
lot of disk space.

I guess their presence is required if one wants to uninstall updates
that are downloaded & installed from Microsoft, aren't they?
 
N

Nepatsfan

RN1 said:
What are the folders $NtServicePackUninstall$ in C:\WINDOWS for? Can
they be deleted permanently without any negative impact on WinXP?
There are more than 150 such folders & some of them consume quite a
lot of disk space.

I guess their presence is required if one wants to uninstall updates
that are downloaded & installed from Microsoft, aren't they?


You've guessed correctly, that's exactly what they are.

It's usually a good idea to wait a few weeks after the update has been installed
before deleting the corresponding uninstall folder. Do not delete the $hf_mig$
folder. Windows uses that folder whenever a new update is installed.

Here's a web site which provides an automated way of deleting those folders.

Courtesy of Doug Knox, MS-MVP
Removes Hotfix Backup files and the Add/Remove Programs Registry entries.
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

Here's another web site with more information.

Courtesy of Ramesh Srinivasan, MS-MVP
What are the $NTUninstall folders? Can they be deleted?
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Hotfix_backup.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
R

Rich Barry

You answered your own question basically. You can delete them if you
have had no
problems with Updates and do not want to Uninstall them.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

What are the folders $NtServicePackUninstall$ in C:\WINDOWS for? Can
they be deleted permanently without any negative impact on WinXP?
There are more than 150 such folders & some of them consume quite a
lot of disk space.

I guess their presence is required if one wants to uninstall updates
that are downloaded & installed from Microsoft, aren't they?


Yes, that's what they are. If you remove them, you will lose the
ability to uninstall those fixes. That's OK, if you are sure you will
never want to uninstall them.

By the way, regarding their consuming "quite a lot of disk space"
multiply the number of megabytes they consume by the cost of a
megabyte of disk storage these days. You will see that in reality,
they consume a *tiny* amount of disk space--a few pennies worth.

My point of view is that, considering how *little* disk space they
consume, it's safer to keep them, just in case.
 

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