Safe to delete windows update files?

freebooter

freebooter

freebooter

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I have just done a fresh winXP install and I am trying to clean it up before making a backup. I have downloaded all the windows updates and this has left loads of uninstall files in the system folder, eg $NtUninstallKB873339$ etc. These take up about 190MB and as I can't see me wanting to uninstall security updates I would like to get rid of them.

Is it safe for me to simply delete them or is there another way?

thanks
 
thanks for the reply. Should I just delete them through the file manager or is there some of "uninstalling" them? I know they show up in add/rem prog but I assume that is to uninstall the updats themselves not the backup files?
 
Just treat them as any normal folder if you want to delete them.

They are kept (as the name suggests :eek: ) so they can be deleted, if you're working fine then I wouldn’t worry about it and go ahead and remove them. I have on my PC and it’s had no adverse affects anyway :)
 
CCleaner can cause problems and is not recomended any more.

Try using Steve Gould's CleanUp! instead or ATFCleaner.
 
You can also delete the SoftwareDistribution folder which is updates information. It can hold 600Mb of un-needed updates junk sometimes. You might have to go into Safe Mode to delete it though.

Never had any probs with Ccleaner? I don't like the latest version bundled with Yahoo's blatant spyware-style toolbar, but you can still download the older versions. Most computers I find that are completely riddled usually have the Yahoo bar there pretending it's doing nothing. Strange.
 
bledd. said:
use ccleaner to remove all the entries for them..
Click to expand...

This is what I was afraid of - that remnents would be left behind if I just deleted the files. Do you mean registry entries?

I have heard of ccleaner but never used it. I tried looking for the others and cleanup seemed to be for getting rid of internet traces and I couldn't find a dl site for the atf one.

Johnny - yep the sw dist folder is about 200MB as well. Do you delete the whole thing or just the contents?
 
I just delete the contents as it comes back again when you do a Windows Update. I don't update mine but leave the folder there "just in case"

I must have used Ccleaner on close to 50 or 60 computers now and never once had a problem, it just deletes dead registry entries. I only run the registry cleaner the once, when I first install it, but use the file cleaner quite regularly.
 
What is the latest version ccleaner then without the yahoo nastiness? I have always been very reluctant to use registry cleaners tbh.

One thing that has occured to me is that win update must keep some kind of record of which updates have been installed. I don't want it to try and dl them all again because I have deleted the log. Do you know how this works?

thanks
 
I've only been using CC for a few months now. I have had no problems and the reg cleaner is a mild one at that :) What's the yahoo business. I am using the latest version of CC.
Just re-read the change log. Yahoo toolbar is an optional install. I chose not to, CC is great :)
 
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