Odd files in Windows

[Lisa D Dunn]

In performing a disk cleanup, I had an option of deleting
compressed old files, 57,353 KB total, which looked odd.
I hadn't noticed these before when doing a disk cleanup.
I right clicked explore to look at them. I clicked
Windows, and these are the first listed. There are 17
files, in blue type, not black, which are called, for
example $NtuninstallKB828035$, the others are basically
the same, but have the i.d.'s KB823980,KB314405, etc.
The "unintall" peaked my curiosity. These were
created/loaded/downloaded recently without my knowledge.
My concern is that if I delete these, I will uninstall
something vital in Windows. I was originally having
trouble with Abobe, in that it would freeze upon
launching. I was instructed by Adobe to delete my
temporary files. That is why I was performing a disk
cleanup.

 

[Tumbleweed]

In performing a disk cleanup, I had an option of deleting
compressed old files, 57,353 KB total, which looked odd.
I hadn't noticed these before when doing a disk cleanup.
I right clicked explore to look at them. I clicked
Windows, and these are the first listed. There are 17
files, in blue type, not black, which are called, for
example $NtuninstallKB828035$, the others are basically
the same, but have the i.d.'s KB823980,KB314405, etc.
The "unintall" peaked my curiosity. These were
created/loaded/downloaded recently without my knowledge.
My concern is that if I delete these, I will uninstall
something vital in Windows. I was originally having
trouble with Abobe, in that it would freeze upon
launching. I was instructed by Adobe to delete my
temporary files. That is why I was performing a disk
cleanup.

These are uninstall files for Windows Updates, so the chances are they were
installed with your knowledge

 

[Guest]

Some of these were installed at 3ish in the morning.
This is a computer at work that is left on 24/7. Why
would disk cleanup give me the option of deleting these?

 

[Phil]

Ok you're a bit confused here.
First, disk clean up does not delete compressed files, it compresses old
files.(if you read the description in disk cleanup it tells you this). When
you choose to do this xp compresses old, rarely used files to save disk
space. It is ok to let it compress the files.
The files you found in the windows folder named as $NTUninstall....(etc),
are the windows updates and patches that you have installed from
windowupdate.com or installed using the auto-update feature in xp. You * do
not* want to uninstall the patches. You can manually delete the uninstall
files from explorer and then go into add/remove programs and remove the
entries for them.

 

[David Candy]

It's not. Read the description of this one command carefully. It's the only one that doesn't delete anything.

 

[Phil]

Read the other replies, I explained it to you. It does not delete compressed
files and the files it compressing has nothing to do with the ntuninstall
files.
They got installed at three in the morning cause you have the auto-update
feature turned on.