System size keeps growing......

[William B. Lurie]

My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?

I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.

 

[Bickford Shmeckler]

If you remove them with Add/Remove programs, you will no longer have the
security updates, which you DO need.

You can remove the $Uninstall files from C: Windows. However, then you can
never uninstall them from add/remove if you need to for some reason or
another.

Another Option: Buy a bigger drive.

: My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
: and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
: no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
: Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
: downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
: store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
: the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
: as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?
:
: I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
: And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.

 

[Unknown]

Don't understand your post. If you install a security update (KBxxxxxx) why
would you want to delete it by
using Add/Remove programs??

 

[kraut]

My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?

I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.

Check out Windows Update Remover at

http://www.tech-pro.net/windows-update-remover.html

Windows XP Update Remover provides a quick and easy way to delete the
backup files left behind after every Windows update and reclaim
valuable disk space. It can also remove Windows updates that appear to
be causing trouble.

Whenever Windows Update runs to install security fixes and other
updates to your system, it creates a folder within the Windows folder
containing all the files replaced during the update. These folders
have names like "$NtUninstall..." and are highlighted in blue. The
contents of these folders are only ever needed if you uninstall an
update. If you are not going to uninstall an update then its backup
folder can be removed to save disk space. However, these folders
cannot (or should not) simply be deleted, because they are referred to
by links in the Registry.

Manually removing these folders and their related Registry links is
possible, but not easy. This is where Windows XP Update Remover comes
in. It makes clean removal of these folders easy. Just select an
update from the list, read the information about it to see what it is,
and then click Remove backup folder. If you want to know what an
update does before deleting its backup folders then you can click on a
link to Microsoft web pages that describe the update.

Windows XP Update Remover can uninstall Windows updates as well. This
is not something you will often need to do, unless you suspect that an
update has caused problems with your computer, so the program displays
a warning before allowing you to proceed with removal of an update.


If an update has been running fine for months then it is safe to bet
that you will not need the backup files and it is safe to delete them.

I use this prog and have had no problems.

 

[Daave]

My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?

I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.

Yes, SP2 will soon no longer be supported. But since you have SP3, this
shouldn't be an issue.

Although there is a way to delete some of that stuff, as long as your
hard drive is large enough, I wouldn't worry about it.

How large is your hard drive? How much free space do you have on it? (If
there is more than one partition, please include those figures for each
partition.)

BTW, if you use Add or Remove Programs, you will wind up uninstalling
those updates. So don't do that!!!

Yes, there is a way to delete those particular KB installation files
(and the method does *not* involve Add or Remove Programs!) and that
could be discussed in another post. But as long as space isn't an issue,
since they're not bothering anything, you might as well leave them
alone.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Check out Windows Update Remover at

http://www.tech-pro.net/windows-update-remover.html

Windows XP Update Remover provides a quick and easy way to delete the
backup files left behind after every Windows update and reclaim
valuable disk space. It can also remove Windows updates that appear to
be causing trouble.

Whenever Windows Update runs to install security fixes and other
updates to your system, it creates a folder within the Windows folder
containing all the files replaced during the update. These folders
have names like "$NtUninstall..." and are highlighted in blue. The
contents of these folders are only ever needed if you uninstall an
update. If you are not going to uninstall an update then its backup
folder can be removed to save disk space. However, these folders
cannot (or should not) simply be deleted, because they are referred to
by links in the Registry.

Manually removing these folders and their related Registry links is
possible, but not easy. This is where Windows XP Update Remover comes
in. It makes clean removal of these folders easy. Just select an
update from the list, read the information about it to see what it is,
and then click Remove backup folder. If you want to know what an
update does before deleting its backup folders then you can click on a
link to Microsoft web pages that describe the update.

Windows XP Update Remover can uninstall Windows updates as well. This
is not something you will often need to do, unless you suspect that an
update has caused problems with your computer, so the program displays
a warning before allowing you to proceed with removal of an update.


If an update has been running fine for months then it is safe to bet
that you will not need the backup files and it is safe to delete them.

I use this prog and have had no problems.

Thanks for that tool, Kraut. I forgot to mention earlier that
I was aware of the $NtUninstall series in c:\Windows but also
that there were too many to delete manually, and then there
would be Registry to contemplate.

I'm not concerned with deleting all those already-installed
downloads. If it should ever be a concern, I always have a recent
clone to fall back on. What I don't like is having a 20GB-sized
system that used to be a lot smaller.....and now performing
partition operations takes just that much longer, moving all
that stuff which I regard as having served its purpose.

 

[Daave]

What I don't like is having a 20GB-sized
system that used to be a lot smaller.....and now performing
partition operations takes just that much longer, moving all
that stuff which I regard as having served its purpose.

In the overall scheme of things, 20GB isn't that huge. What kind of
partition operations do you perform that are now taking longer than they
used to?

 

[William B. Lurie]

Check out Windows Update Remover at

http://www.tech-pro.net/windows-update-remover.html

Windows XP Update Remover provides a quick and easy way to delete the
backup files left behind after every Windows update and reclaim
valuable disk space. It can also remove Windows updates that appear to
be causing trouble.

Using it fine, Kraut, and thanx again. It saves 800MB that now
doesn't need moving whenevr I do a partition operation.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?

I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.

What does the last sentence matter if you have SP3 as you said?

Anyway - Windows XP with SP3 and a whole bunch of extra programs would take
between 4.5GB and 10GB in most cases. Most of the time - if you are using
more than that - it is really *you* that is using more than that.

Want to clear up space - but be smart about it?

Download/install the "Windows Installer CleanUp Utility":
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN
(no "RUN"? Press the "Windows Key" + R on your keyboard)
--> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.
(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be exact.)

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

You should now perform a full CHKDSK on your system drive (C...

How to scan your disks for errors
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265
* will take time and a reboot

You should now perform a full Defragment on your system drive (C...

How to Defragment your hard drives
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848
* will take time

Uninstall any and all third-party firewall applications (ZoneAlarm, etc)
and utilize the built-in Windows Firewall only.

 

[William B. Lurie]

In the overall scheme of things, 20GB isn't that huge. What kind of
partition operations do you perform that are now taking longer than they
used to?

Daave, I do a system backup every week or so, and I delete an older
backup to make room for a new one. Then I make a clone from the saved
backup and test the clone to make sure I can always jump right back
if I have to.

But Shenan Stanley's exhaustive advice just received has a
lot that I knew, a lot that I didn't, and will require a
lot of study.

BTW, I have all XP System Restore inoperative. I prefer a
full bootable copy to fall back on. On a separate drive.

 

[kraut]

Using it fine, Kraut, and thanx again. It saves 800MB that now
doesn't need moving whenevr I do a partition operation.

Glad to be of help William B. Lurie

 

[Daave]

Daave, I do a system backup every week or so, and I delete an older
backup to make room for a new one. Then I make a clone from the saved
backup and test the clone to make sure I can always jump right back
if I have to.

What do you mean by "system backup."

If you were to make incremental images, then the size of your partition
doesn't matter too much. Plus, you could automate the process and have
it run in the background. As long as your hard drive is large enough, a
20GB-sized system shouldn't matter much to you.

But Shenan Stanley's exhaustive advice just received has a
lot that I knew, a lot that I didn't, and will require a
lot of study.

Yup, he's very thorough!

BTW, I have all XP System Restore inoperative. I prefer a
full bootable copy to fall back on. On a separate drive.

I like System Restore. Once in a blue moon, it has come in handy. And
it's quick and easy.

 

[William B. Lurie]

What do you mean by "system backup."

If you were to make incremental images, then the size of your partition
doesn't matter too much. Plus, you could automate the process and have
it run in the background. As long as your hard drive is large enough, a
20GB-sized system shouldn't matter much to you.


Yup, he's very thorough!


I like System Restore. Once in a blue moon, it has come in handy. And
it's quick and easy.

To me, Daave, 'system backup' means Norton Save & Restore, the
successor to PowerQuest's Ghost, which makes a drive image of the
complete OS and everything else in that partition. And from that
I make a clone, a full restore on a different hard drive, which
I keep as an almost instant substitute for the Master system. I know
that there are simpler ways, that take less time and space, and
I know that I go overboard regarding 'backup'....but I just have
to be me.

 

[William B. Lurie]

With 1 TB hard drives costing around $100 US why not get a bigger drive?

Roy, it's not a matter of money. The bigger the drive, the higher
the probability that the drive will crash (as they do, albeit
infrequently) and then I've lost even more. I remember the days
when 10 Megabytes was a large hard drive, and now my smallest one
8000 times that size. Call me old-fashioned. Tell me about a belt
and suspenders. I won't disagree.

 

[William B. Lurie]

Shenan Stanley wrote:

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

Shenan, I have IE8- 8.0.600 18702
and Under General Tab I find no Temp Int Files.
Please advise

 

[Shenan Stanley]

<snipped>

Shenan, I have IE8- 8.0.600 18702
and Under General Tab I find no Temp Int Files.
Please advise

"General Tab" --> section labeled "Browsing History" you'll notice it says,
"Delete Temporary Files, history, cookies..." Same thing when you get in -
delete all by whatever means necessary.

 

[William B. Lurie]

<snipped>

FWIW, Shenan, my partition has 7.6GB Windows, 5 GB Doc and Settings,
4.5 GB Program Files, 3 GB '.....Files', 1 GB Norton,
and a bunch more, smaller, as reported by running FullDisk..

I looked at hiberfil.sys and it is 1.3 GB. Out of curiosity,
I would have expected this to be a file which would be created
on the fly when the system goes into hibernation, and gets
deleted routinely as having served its purpose when it comes out of
hibernation.

I'm still absorbing the rest of your advice.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

My Master system (XP/Home/SP3) has been growing and growing
and is now nearing 20GB. I get rid of programs that I have
no need for periodically, but it occurs to me that Windows
Update has favored me with a zillion KB's over the years,
downloaded and installed them. I wonder why I still need to
store the KB's themselves. Isn't there a way to delete
the accumulated KB's that have been incorporated? Such
as, why not from Add/Remove Programs?

I will always have a backup system that has them if they're needed.
And I'm aware that 'support' for XP/SP2 is going away shortly.

Assuming that by "Master system" you're referring to the contents of
WinXP's various system files....

If you're referring to the numerous "$NtUninstall...." folders
within your C:\Windows directory and are confident that you won't need
to uninstall either the most recent service pack or any of the
subsequent hot-fixes, you can safely delete those folders.

A primary space waster within each user profile would be IE's
penchant for storing copies (or significant portions thereof) of nearly
every web page your friend has ever visited. Try reducing the amount of
temporary Internet files cached, which is huge by default. I always
reduce it to a maximum of 50 Mb. In Internet Explorer, click Tools >
Internet Options > General, Temporary Files > Settings.

Same principle for the Java cache. Start > Control Panel > Java >
Temporary Internet Files > Settings.

The System Volume Information is the folder in which WinXP's System
Restore feature stores information used to recover from errors. By
default, WinXP sets aside a maximum of 12% of the partition's size for
storing System Volume Information, but the amount of space set aside for
this purpose can be adjusted by the user. Start > All Programs >
Accessories > System Tools > System Restore > System Restore Settings,
select the pertinent partition and click Settings. If you don't want to
use System Restore at all, simply turn off the System Restore feature
(Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore,
System Restore Settings) and reboot. This will delete all of your
Restore Points, freeing up the hard drive space.

Another great waster of space can be the Recycle Bin. By default,
this takes up to 10% of your hard drive capacity. On today's large hard
drives, this is tremendously wasteful. It can be set to a lower limit
by right-clicking the desktop Receycle Bin icon, selecting Properties,
and using the slider bar to lower the maximum size to something more
reasonable -- 1% to 2% should be more than enough space.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Daave]

FWIW, Shenan, my partition has 7.6GB Windows, 5 GB Doc and Settings,
4.5 GB Program Files, 3 GB '.....Files', 1 GB Norton,
and a bunch more, smaller, as reported by running FullDisk..

I looked at hiberfil.sys and it is 1.3 GB. Out of curiosity,
I would have expected this to be a file which would be created
on the fly when the system goes into hibernation, and gets
deleted routinely as having served its purpose when it comes out of
hibernation.

As long as hiberbnation is enabled, there must be a sizeable
hiberfil.sys file. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hibernate.

Even if you were to start Windows and not run any particular programs
(other than the ones that are configured to run at startup), what you
have loaded into memory is still quite sizeable!

 

[Daave]

To me, Daave, 'system backup' means Norton Save & Restore, the
successor to PowerQuest's Ghost, which makes a drive image of the
complete OS and everything else in that partition. And from that
I make a clone, a full restore on a different hard drive, which
I keep as an almost instant substitute for the Master system. I know
that there are simpler ways, that take less time and space, and
I know that I go overboard regarding 'backup'....but I just have
to be me.

Doesn't the Norton program have the ability to perform incremental
images automatically, behind the scenes? If so, the size of your system
is irrelevant as long as your hard drive is large enough.

Or do you always manually create full images? Hey, if this is how you
want to do things, it's your life. At least, you have adequate and
reliable backups.