System size keeps growing......

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.

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.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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.

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.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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.

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 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:37:27 -0400, "William B. Lurie"
wrote:

kraut wrote:



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.


Glad to be of help William B. Lurie

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:37:27 -0400, "William B. Lurie"
wrote:

kraut wrote:



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.


Glad to be of help William B. Lurie

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:
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.


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.

Daave wrote:
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.


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.

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

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.

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.

Shenan Stanley wrote:
snip

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