System size keeps growing......

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.

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.

"William B. Lurie" wrote in message
...
: 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.

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

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:13:30 -0400, "William B. Lurie"
wrote:

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.

kraut wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:13:30 -0400, "William B. Lurie"
wrote:

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.


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.

William B. Lurie wrote:

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?

Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

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?


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.

William B. Lurie wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

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?


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 wrote:
Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

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?


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.

Daave wrote:
William B. Lurie wrote:

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?


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.

On 6/17/2010 11:16 AM, William B. Lurie wrote:
kraut wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:13:30 -0400, "William B. Lurie"
wrote:

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.


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.

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

--

Roy Smith
Windows XP Professional SP3

Timestamp: Friday, June 18, 2010 5:56:07 AM

Roy Smith wrote:
On 6/17/2010 11:16 AM, William B. Lurie wrote:
kraut wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:13:30 -0400, "William B. Lurie"
wrote:

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.


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.

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" wrote in message
...
Roy Smith wrote:
On 6/17/2010 11:16 AM, William B. Lurie wrote:
... [big snip] ...
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.

I'd never rely on just _one_ of any backup medium.
My standard strategy: two removable drives, one in
day-to-day use, one "somewhere else", reasonably
frequently rotated, so that my maximum loss is no
more than a few days if no backup drive crashes,
or a longer, but still manageable period if one
backup drive crashes.

If the main and both backup drives were to crash, I'd still
be in serious trouble.

"William B. Lurie" wrote in message
...
Roy Smith wrote:
On 6/17/2010 11:16 AM, William B. Lurie wrote:
... [big snip] ...
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.

I'd never rely on just _one_ of any backup medium.
My standard strategy: two removable drives, one in
day-to-day use, one "somewhere else", reasonably
frequently rotated, so that my maximum loss is no
more than a few days if no backup drive crashes,
or a longer, but still manageable period if one
backup drive crashes.

If the main and both backup drives were to crash, I'd still
be in serious trouble.

Roy Smith wrote:
On 6/17/2010 11:16 AM, William B. Lurie wrote:
kraut wrote:
On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:13:30 -0400, "William B. Lurie"
wrote:

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.


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.

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.