Win XP CLeanup

[mubs]

The C drive in my daughter's PC (Win XP SP3) is 87.5% full.

Windows is the biggest culprit at 5.32GB. In the Windows folder:

           Installer: 1039 MB
            $hf_mig$:  795 MB
    ServicePackFiles:  461 MB
            assembly:  326 MB
SoftwareDistribution:  294 MB
          ie8Updates:  276 MB
          ie7Updates:  123 MB
         DriverCache:  109 MB

I am not listing obviously needed folders like system32. IE8 is installed, but ie7 junk is present. These numbers are after doing a disk cleanup. All user files are on other partitions.

System is a Dell P4 running the original Dell XP distro that was upgraded to SP3 by me. Reinstalling the OS and progs will be a really royal pain. I was hoping to build a new PC for myself and do a clean install of W7 on mine to give to her, but a new pc build has been postponed indefinitely.

Which of these can be deleted? Thanks.

 

[mubs]

There also numerous $NTUninstall folders. Hard to quantify the size since I'll have to check each one individually.

The system is quite stable, so I don't see the need to uninstall a service pack or an update.

Thanks.

 

[Chewy509]

It's safe to remove the $NTUninstall folders, providing you don't need to rollback a hotfix.

ServicePackFiles are a copy of the last ServicePack installed. It's used if you want to add/remove internal windows components, so not recommended to remove it.

$hf_mfg$ are used to ensure hotfix file versioning integrity, and should not be touched.

Assembly is .NET crap, don't touch it unless you fell like hosing the .Net framework installation.

DriverCache is a folder cache of all the drivers in use by the system. Not recommended to touch it.

Installer is used by Windows Installer to hold copies of all applications installed via MSIs. You can use msizap to reduce the size of this folder. (Do not delete this folder unless you want to reinstall Windows). To clean up this folder, install msizap and run "msizap G" to clean up this cache folder.

 

[Howell]

This util will make removal of the hotfix files ($NTUninstall...) easier:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

Any of those folders you decide to keep, you can compress. They are very rarely and only incidentally used so it won't effect operation most of the time.

 

[Howell]

Oh and MS does not recommend use of MSIZAP & MSICUU2.exe anymore due to increasingly unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic results.

 

[CougTek]

Have you done a disk cleanup (right-click on the C: -> properties -> disk cleanup)? On the second page, you can remove the old system restore points. It usually saves a lot of space. This one is obvious, but I ask anyway.

Have you done the SP3 removal that Ddrueding wrote about a few weeks ago?

 

[CougTek]

These numbers are after doing a disk cleanup.

Nevermind my previous post. It was a pre-morning-coffee post.

 

[Chewy509]

Oh and MS does not recommend use of MSIZAP & MSICUU2.exe anymore due to increasingly unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic results.

Good to see MS can get software installation and removal correct...

 

[mubs]

Thanks all.

Coug, Chewy seems to say removing SP3 install files is not safe. I'll have to look up DD's post on that.

 

[Chewy509]

Thanks all.

Coug, Chewy seems to say removing SP3 install files is not safe. I'll have to look up DD's post on that.

It is somewhat safe, however anytime you may want to add/remove a windows component, you'll need those files.

 

[Bozo]

Why don't you run CCleaner?

 

[mubs]

Thanks Bozo, I will try that. But most of what CC Cleaner will do has already been done by other tools or by hand, so I'm not optimistic I'll get dramatic results with it.

 

[CougTek]

You won't. Not that Ccleaning isn't good. Just not spectacular.

 

[Will Rickards]

CCleaner can remove those NTUninstall folders.