Deleting window xp updates

[grace]

Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

Do not remove updates. They take up little space and if you have some that
are more than 5 year old, then you do not have SP2 installed.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.

If you remove an update, you put the system back to the state it was
in before the update. Assuming that there was a good reason for the
update (probably a very safe assumption), removing them would be
foolhardy.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 1/22/2008 4:13 PM, and on a whim, grace pounded
out on the keyboard:

Is it safe to remove old window xp updates? I have updates 5 years are
older, and was wondering if they were taking up a lot of space on my
hard-drive, and would like to clean them up if its safe.

Hi Grace,

Once you've installed an update and know it works properly, you can
remove them. I usually keep them for a few months.

To do it properly, do this:

Open Explorer and look for the oldest updates. Also open Add/Remove
Programs in Control Panel and make sure "Show Updates" is checked.

When you remove an update folder from Explorer, find the corresponding
update in Add/Remove programs. Click on the Remove button for that
update and you will get an error message stating it couldn't be found.
Follow through with it and the update will be removed from there.


--
Terry R.

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[Timothy Daniels]

I think the poster is asking if he can delete the update files, not
uninstall the updates from the OS. I, personally, delete them
after 2 or 3 months of smooth running.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I think the poster is asking if he can delete the update files, not
uninstall the updates from the OS.

Maybe so, but that's not what he asked. I am personally very reluctant
to make an assumption that he means something other than what he said.
That's an easy way to get someone into serious trouble.

I, personally, delete them
after 2 or 3 months of smooth running.

My personal practice is very different. These uninstall files
really take up very little room. Unless you are very short of disk
space, I think it's safer to keep them even if you think you'll never
need them, just in case.

*TimDaniels*