Uninstall files

Under C:\Windows there are several files label such as $NtServicePackUnistall$ Which of course is the newest,

Under it are several more.

I ask: " Can these be deleted. ? If so. How do I do it ? They seem like a waste of space.

I ask this because I see no sense to using any of the older ones. If I were to use one of them would it or would it not MESSUP ( totally ) the newest one ?

I am being called for lunch. Be back later.

 

Hi BB,

Just delete them from the WINDOWS folder. I burned them out, but that's a wasted motion for the ones that are a few months old.

Hi Christer

They go pooff

Regards - Charles

EDIT: Forgot to add - they show back up in the ADD/REMOVE if downloaded again. Did this once out of curiousity.

 

I do not know either as there were none there today like there was yesterday when there were two ( 2 ) of them.

Just maybe XP is smarter than we give it credit for. It sees something ( like the refs' to old uninstall files ) and just plains says " we no longer need these. "

BillyBob

 

PeteC

100% agreement there. No if/ands, buts or may-bes about it. It DOES requires a reboot to update the reg.

A lesson learned the tuff way when changes would not hold. This was required even in 98SE.

I deleted 7-8 folders and RESTARTED Windows immediately. Then cleaned the reg. Norton Win Doc found 8 illegal items and regseeker found 20. And after restarting again RegSeeker found 8 more.

Oh BTW. My C: drive freesapce went for 29% % to 31% according to Defrag.

BillyBob

 

There was a thread some months (?) ago about not having to reboot started by Reboot, the gist of which was Reboot's pride on his not rebooting for days - weeks, and for all I know, still not having done a reboot. I still laugh everytime I think about it.

Regards - Charles

 

Well, for these types of things and for things like when you edit something in the registry and "need to reboot" for the changes to take effect, in reality, all that's usually necessary for the changes to take effect is to log off and then log back on. Saves time and technically you aren't rebooting. So, you could do things like this and still not have to reboot.

 

I remember the thread too. Johanna started it, asking when to reboot, told when she does so, and it was based on machine performance if I'm not mistaken. Reboot made some valid points, IMO, stating that a stable system running well written software, rarely needs to be, and Arie as well as a few others agreed that with XP it is rarely necessary, as it is with previous OS's. Updating the registry however, may be one area of the discussion that didn't get covered (lord knows everything else did). Seems to me though, that I have made these types of changes and only logged off and back on for the registry to take.

EDIT
I see Zander already covered the logoff/on. Man I gotta learn to type!

 

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

May be of interest also. I use it with success.

 

My problem with that thread was that it lost all sense of proportion. It also gets mixed into whether one shuts off the system overnight for example. I could do the same, not reboot, the question is, so what?

Maybe I need an attitude check

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks - certainly is for people who don't know where these files are and even if they did, wouldn't delete them, not knowing the consequences.

Regards - Charles

 

OK !.

What we have here now is two different ways to do a job. They both work.

Now it maybe comes down to personal preference. But I may prefer method 1 over method 2. Others may prefer the reverse.

I am not 100% sure about un-installing but I have found that when installing, a Windows restart may be better. But that may depend somewhat on the software too. It could even depend on the software/hardware issue. I have found that a log off/on may not let the sofware pickup the hardware correctly. This may or may not have something to do with the " Files in use issue."

A Windows restart does not take that long on this machine anyway. And since I installed Update V5 and SP2 and got things cleand up it seems to be even quicker yet.

I have found the startup/restart to be regulated more by what is loading than anything else.

And I do not worry about the time elliment anyway. The quicker way may not always be the better way. My Dad ( rest his soul ) taught me that.

BillyBob

 

Ditto! Makes one happy that old threads are locked now.

I was thinking I did.

 

Uninstall files can be safely deleted after a few days, in an ordinary situation- however: why? It is not to "save space "- we all have more space than we need! LOL

And, now, since I made a few changes this afternoon, and also since my cursor seems sluggish, I am going to reboot. So there.

Johanna

 

I'll not say anymore.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I was trashing SP2 RC2 as a big bloat. But I made the jump this morning with V2149 and just installed V2162.

I deleted the uninstall files in question. I ran Easy Cleaner Registry Cleaner. This removed the entries from Add/Remove program.

I Drive Imaged before and after. If it turns out I need the files I can either pull them out with Image Explorer or just restore with those files in there.

It's not so much that I need the disk space on C. I'm trying to keep my Drive Image .pqi files smaller. It knocked 600 mbs off what I need to copy and 30 seconds off the time to do it.