purpose of four windowsxp folders

[Jake]

The four folders I am interested in knowing there purpose, as well if some
of the older information in these can be removed are1/ installer,2/
registeredpackages, 3/drivercache and 4/repair. There appears to be a lot of
redundant old information in these. Does Microsoft somewhere on there web
site provide this info. I have tried using Google to find if information
about these existed , little was found.

Or, should I leave well enough alone?

Thank you to all that answer this.

Jake

 

[Thorsten Matzner]

The four folders I am interested in knowing there purpose, as well if some
of the older information in these can be removed are1/ installer,2/
registeredpackages, 3/drivercache and 4/repair. There appears to be a lot of
redundant old information in these. Does Microsoft somewhere on there web
site provide this info. I have tried using Google to find if information
about these existed , little was found.

1. is for the Windows Installer and is used when you have to
uninstall/repair software that has been installed via this tool.
2. is used by the Windows Update site and can also be used for
reinstallations.
3. keeps the driver database up to date. If you need to
install/reinstall a device, Windows will find the newest versions of
the drivers here, as far as drivers are provided via Windows.
4. keeps backups of some core configuration files and is used when
Windows cannot load one of the original files.
I would not touch these folders.