Strange folders and can they be safely removed?

G

Guest

I've noticed a large number of strange subfolders in my Windows directory
such as:

$hf_mig$

this folder has about a dozen or so subfolders itself starting with KB834707
thru Kb891781

What are these? I've also found the following in my Windows directory:

$NtServcePackUninstall$ (highlighted in blue)
$NtUninstallKB81217$ thru
$NtUninstallQ828026$ (also highlighted in blue)

Are these automatic Windows XP updates? Can they be removed? If so, can
they simply be deleted or is there a specific procedure for removing them?

I've got quite a few of them now (around 70 so far) and would like to get
rid of
them if they're no longer needed and are just taking up space on my hard
drive for no good reason. Even if, as has been pointed out to me that they
are
already compressed and therefore probably don't take up all that much space on
my hard drive, they also make scrolling through my Windows directory rather
tedious at times! I'd like to get rid of them for this reason alone.

I do understand that removing them will also remove any chance of
unintalling these hotfixes if they should begin to cause problems. While it
might be a good idea to hang onto the most recent hotfixes for this very
reason, surely the older ones can be given the boot since, if they were to
going to cause any problems, they would have already done so by now, right?

At any rate thanks in advance for the help!
 
T

Thorsten Matzner

Scott Miller said:
I've noticed a large number of strange subfolders in my Windows directory
such as:

$hf_mig$

Do not touch this folder. See "Description of the contents of Windows
XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 software update packages"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=824994).
this folder has about a dozen or so subfolders itself starting with KB834707
thru Kb891781

What are these? I've also found the following in my Windows directory:

$NtServcePackUninstall$ (highlighted in blue)
$NtUninstallKB81217$ thru
$NtUninstallQ828026$ (also highlighted in blue)

These folders keep uninstall files for the latest SP and for the
Windows Updates. You can remove them if you are sure that you do not
need to uninstall these patches:
1. Open the Explorer and navigate to the WINDOWS folder. Find the
folders named $NTUNINSTALLKBxxxxxx$ (sometimes KB is replaced by Q in
the name). Delete the folders for the patches which you do no longer
need. The x stands for the patch number.
2. Delete the KBxxxxxx.LOG and Qxxxxxx.LOG files with the same number
from the WINDOWS folder as well.
3. In the Control Panel > Add and remove Programs double-click the
uninstall entries for the same patches and let Windows remove the
entries.
 

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