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Well.. thanks to a lot of helpful people in here, I got the Update
completed. Without a hitch, I might add. I realize that's a bit of
premature boasting. There's still loads of Apps I haven't tried yet, but
my browser, mail, and Xnews are working without a hitch. :)
I set the auto-update to notify me rather than downloading and installing
crap I may not want/need. I hate it when the system tries to take over like
that. :D
Okay.. First question. (You knew there would be questions, right?) I
looked in the Windows directory and found 30+ folders that all begin and
end with ($) the dollar sign. Why the hell couldn't they have put all these
under a master directory?? Sloppy..sloppy..
I suppose someone already told how to avoid this very thing and I missed it
or skimmed over it.
Am I stuck with them or can they be moved somewhere else or ideally,
deleted?
I know they are uninstall files, but if I ever decide to uninstall, I'll
wipe the disk and start from scratch.
So, whattayathink?
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No harm in deleting them. Though if you have plenty of room on your
hard drive creat a new folder and move them.
"Cottonmouth" <noway[ at ]nohow.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9B6EEC9B51939myemailemalecom[ at ]216.77.188.18...
[Quoted Text] > Well.. thanks to a lot of helpful people in here, I got the Update
> completed. Without a hitch, I might add. I realize that's a bit of
> premature boasting. There's still loads of Apps I haven't tried yet, but
> my browser, mail, and Xnews are working without a hitch. :)
>
> I set the auto-update to notify me rather than downloading and installing
> crap I may not want/need. I hate it when the system tries to take over
> like
> that. :D
>
> Okay.. First question. (You knew there would be questions, right?) I
> looked in the Windows directory and found 30+ folders that all begin and
> end with ($) the dollar sign. Why the hell couldn't they have put all
> these
> under a master directory?? Sloppy..sloppy..
> I suppose someone already told how to avoid this very thing and I missed
> it
> or skimmed over it.
>
> Am I stuck with them or can they be moved somewhere else or ideally,
> deleted?
> I know they are uninstall files, but if I ever decide to uninstall, I'll
> wipe the disk and start from scratch.
>
> So, whattayathink?
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Cottonmouth wrote:
[Quoted Text] > Well.. thanks to a lot of helpful people in here, I got the Update
> completed. Without a hitch, I might add. I realize that's a bit of
> premature boasting. There's still loads of Apps I haven't tried
> yet, but my browser, mail, and Xnews are working without a hitch. :)
>
> I set the auto-update to notify me rather than downloading and
> installing crap I may not want/need. I hate it when the system
> tries to take over like that. :D
>
> Okay.. First question. (You knew there would be questions, right?)
> I looked in the Windows directory and found 30+ folders that all
> begin and end with ($) the dollar sign. Why the hell couldn't they
> have put all these under a master directory?? Sloppy..sloppy..
> I suppose someone already told how to avoid this very thing and I
> missed it or skimmed over it.
>
> Am I stuck with them or can they be moved somewhere else or ideally,
> deleted?
> I know they are uninstall files, but if I ever decide to uninstall,
> I'll wipe the disk and start from scratch.
So delete them (within reason - see below.)
They are under a master directory - Windows - which is a directory the
casual user should not be messing with anyway.
Since you seem concerned with space and miscellaneous files/folders...
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..
SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/
JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html
Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.
If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
you would be better off spending a little and putting in a drive that is
likely 3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning
yourself over such a small amount of space OR you seriously need
to consider what you really need on the system and what should be
archived.
Basic housekeeping 101... - in an actual home, if your storage area gets
full - you either have to decide what you really should have in the storage
area and what could go or you have to find a new place to store stuff
that will accommodate everything you need. You don't walk into a
warehouse of cars, look at the filing cabinet in the corner where
you keep all the records for the cars and decide that if you move it out of
the warehouse - you will have more room for cars. ;-)
--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
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The $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders and associated files in these
folders are created during each Windows Update that is installed
on your PC and are safe to remove if you do not plan to uninstall
any security or hotfix updates.
However once deleted you will no longer be able to un-install
a patch or update that was associated with the deleted folder/files.
I would keep the most recent set (last two months just in case) of folders
and delete the older updates.
Note: As a safety net I burned these folders to a CD before deleting them.
$NtServicePackUninstallIDNMitigationAPIs$
$NtServicePackUninstallNLSDownlevelMapping$
Created if and when you installed IE7.
If you delete them you will no longer be able to uninstall IE7
$NtServicePackUninstall$
Created when you install a service pack.
If you are currently using XP with SP2
then if you remove the folder you can no longer
uninstall SP2. When and if you install SP3 this folder will be
deleted and replaced by a new SP3 $NtServicePackUninstall$
folder to be used if you uninstall SP3.
If you have already installed SP3 then I would leave
this folder as is until you are certain that no bugs have
cropped up after installing SP3.
Note: Once you delete this folder you are stuck with SP3
Warning: One folder you should not delete is: $hf_mig$
(and any folders that are part of/contained in $hf_mig$)
It is a necessary folder for future updates
Also See Doug Knox's page on this issue:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm
And:
Is it safe to delete the $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders:
http://www.pagestart.com/ntuninstall.html
JS
http://www.pagestart.com
"Cottonmouth" <noway[ at ]nohow.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9B6EEC9B51939myemailemalecom[ at ]216.77.188.18...
[Quoted Text] > Well.. thanks to a lot of helpful people in here, I got the Update
> completed. Without a hitch, I might add. I realize that's a bit of
> premature boasting. There's still loads of Apps I haven't tried yet, but
> my browser, mail, and Xnews are working without a hitch. :)
>
> I set the auto-update to notify me rather than downloading and installing
> crap I may not want/need. I hate it when the system tries to take over
> like
> that. :D
>
> Okay.. First question. (You knew there would be questions, right?) I
> looked in the Windows directory and found 30+ folders that all begin and
> end with ($) the dollar sign. Why the hell couldn't they have put all
> these
> under a master directory?? Sloppy..sloppy..
> I suppose someone already told how to avoid this very thing and I missed
> it
> or skimmed over it.
>
> Am I stuck with them or can they be moved somewhere else or ideally,
> deleted?
> I know they are uninstall files, but if I ever decide to uninstall, I'll
> wipe the disk and start from scratch.
>
> So, whattayathink?
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|
"JS" <[ at ]> wrote in news:uT$DPWiWJHA.2372[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl:
[Quoted Text] >
> The $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders and associated files in these
> folders are created during each Windows Update that is installed
> on your PC and are safe to remove if you do not plan to uninstall
> any security or hotfix updates.
>
Maybe I'll just create a folder on my D: drive and put them all in it. I
can always put them back if necessary. I just objected to all the clutter
it created by putting them all'loose' in the Windows directory. I've got
more drive space than I'll use before the drive fails anyway. ;)
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You can do that, just remember that one folder you should not move is:
$hf_mig$
(and any folders that are part of/contained in $hf_mig$), it must remain
where it is.
JS
http://www.pagestart.com
"Cottonmouth" <noway[ at ]nohow.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9B7096716040myemailemalecom[ at ]216.77.188.18...
[Quoted Text] > "JS" <[ at ]> wrote in news:uT$DPWiWJHA.2372[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl:
>
>>
>> The $NtUninstallKBxxxxxx$ folders and associated files in these
>> folders are created during each Windows Update that is installed
>> on your PC and are safe to remove if you do not plan to uninstall
>> any security or hotfix updates.
>>
>
> Maybe I'll just create a folder on my D: drive and put them all in it. I
> can always put them back if necessary. I just objected to all the clutter
> it created by putting them all'loose' in the Windows directory. I've got
> more drive space than I'll use before the drive fails anyway. ;)
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