[What are files like "$MSI31Uninstall_KB893083v2$" shown in blue text?]

I recently upgraded from XP SP2 to SP3. This proved very difficult and I had a number of failed attempts. This forum provided very useful advice which enabled me to overcome the problem and successfully install SP3. I lost a lot of disk space during the process and was able to recover some using ATF Cleaner. However, I have just noticed that in the Windows folder, I have vast numbers of files with names like "$MSI31Uninstall_KB893083v2$ ", and "$NTUninstallKB873339$" all written in blue text, and a folder called "$hf_mig$" that contains nearly 600MB of files with names similar to "KB834707 ".

Can anyone tell me what these files are and if they can be deleted?

Thanks.

Alistair

 

The files/folders with Uninstall in them are the uninstall routines of the updates that have been applied to your computer. Keep them for a few days & delete them if you find that you are not facing any problems with your computer.

$hf_mig$ is the folder which contains your previous file versions before applying SP3. Again keep it for a few days.

 

If your PC is behaving properly you can remove the Windows hotfix hidden backup files that begin $NTUninstallKB from the WINDOWS folder. There are two ways to do it:

1. Manually by copying them to a CD/DVD then delete them from the \WINDOWS folder but leave the now orphaned Add or Remove Programs entries intact. Only delete the $NTUninstallKB folders that relate to fixes not those for applications like Word, WMP, etc. Also, DO NOT delete the $hf_mig$ folder.

2. The easier way of running a script which additionally removes the corresponding entries in Add or Remove Programs. Download, extract and run this little script http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm Create a system restore point first just in case anything goes wrong during the registry updating.