Windows Unecessary Folders

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Giannoni
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S

Steve Giannoni

My Windows folder has a multitude of sub-folders named
$NtUninstallKB******$ where *=seemingly random numbers. What are these
and can I safely delete them? Pentium IV running Windows XP home. Any
help greatly appreciated and thanks! ...
 
Steve said:
My Windows folder has a multitude of sub-folders named
$NtUninstallKB******$ where *=seemingly random numbers. What are these
and can I safely delete them? Pentium IV running Windows XP home. Any
help greatly appreciated and thanks! ...
Click to expand...

They're your Windows Updates for things like Security Updates.
If you needed to uninstall a Security Update from the Add/Remove
programs thing, then that folder would be needed for the
uninstall.

The next time you're in Windows Update, look at the numbers of the
security updates. They're "KB987654" type numbers, matching the
kind of thing you're seeing. KB stands for KnowledgeBase and
you can look up the KB987654 type things, here.

http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1

Paul
 
Thanks for info. Sounds like the folders should be left alone. But
then, I've got over 200 of these folders ...
 
Steve said:
My Windows folder has a multitude of sub-folders named
$NtUninstallKB******$ where *=seemingly random numbers. What are these
and can I safely delete them? Pentium IV running Windows XP home. Any
help greatly appreciated and thanks! ...
Click to expand...

I use CCLEANER (google for it) to remove all sorts of unneeded
stuf,caches and temps.

Works great, you have to check/uncheck the things you want to
be removed. I have almost all of them checked,except
Startmenu shortcuts
Desktop shortcuts
Menu order cache
size/loc cache
custom files and folders
saved form info

Invaluable, when you want to do a system virus scan,
al those cache/temp data does not need to be scanned.

I have been using it for some years now.

(running it) .6 GB cleared.

It does leave the service packs folders alone.
 
Steve Giannoni said:
My Windows folder has a multitude of sub-folders named
$NtUninstallKB******$ where *=seemingly random numbers. What are these
and can I safely delete them? Pentium IV running Windows XP home. Any
help greatly appreciated and thanks! ...
Click to expand...

Like already said before, those folders are only needed to uninstall Windows
updates.
Generally, I would say if your system runs fine for a couple of months, you
might delete all those folders without any problem. In addition, you should
also delete all references to the folders in the registry.
And indeed, if you install SP3, it will also remove the folders. Don't know
about the registry enties.

The number of folders brings us back to a more fundamental question: is it
necessary to install all the Windows updates?
I have 2 systems running XP SP2. On the first, I never installed an update,
while the other is up to date. The first one practically never crashes and
run fast and smooth. The second one is much less responsive, and many
updates have resulted in blue screens....
I believe, if you use your system with a minimum of care and caution, you
don' t need most of the updates and i would recommend to only install the
most critical ones (you can find detailed info about the update on MS'
site).
And certainly de-activate automatic updates...
 
How can I confirm if I have SP3 installed?

How can I ID the service pack uninstall folders?
 
Steve said:
How can I confirm if I have SP3 installed?

How can I ID the service pack uninstall folders?
Click to expand...

On my machine, using the "System" control panel, shows the
release info. Mine reads:

System
Microsoft Windows XP
Professional
Version 2002
Service Pack 3

HTH,
Paul
 
Well I just wanted to tidy things up a bit, but the deletions or
whatever must be done seperately on each folder, and 200 is just too
much of a chore ...
 
Somewhere said:
If you have that many uninstall folders, you obviously
don't have XP SP3 installed. When SP3 is installed, it will
remove all the update files that are included in SP3. If you
never intend to uninstall updates, you can safely delete
those folders. Do not touch $hf_mig$, or the service pack
uninstall folders..
Click to expand...

I have SP 3 installed (after Windows was installed from an SP2 install disk)
and have 128 of those files, not counting $hf_mig$ or two service pack unin
folders.
 
Somewhere said:
Well I just wanted to tidy things up a bit, but the deletions or
whatever must be done seperately on each folder, and 200 is just too
much of a chore ...
Click to expand...

Ummm, they should be sequentially listed. Hold shift, left click the first
one, go to the last and left click that and all the folders in between
should now be highlighted. Let go of shift, right click any of the
highlighted folders and then click 'delete' (Or maybe 'cut' and burn them to
a CD / DVD?)
 
That works with files, not folders ...

Ummm, they should be sequentially listed. Hold shift, left click the first
one, go to the last and left click that and all the folders in between
should now be highlighted. Let go of shift, right click any of the
highlighted folders and then click 'delete' (Or maybe 'cut' and burn them to
a CD / DVD?)
Click to expand...
 
Somewhere said:
Of course it works with folders. I do it all the time. You
delete the folders in the viewing pane, not the folders pane,
where it is one folder at a time.
Click to expand...

Thank you Ian. It seems that some people actively resist being helped.
--
Shaun.

"When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson
 
Sorry, I still don't see it. Could you please elaborate. I was/am
starting from the Windows explorer, etc.
 
OK, finally got it to work. Sorry for the trouble. Can't immagine what
was wrong before ...
 
I just want to add my vote for CCLEANER . But consider its settings
carefully 1st time you use it.
It's Registry Cleaner section is good to ..unlike many progs. its very
cautious thus safe.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse
 
talkcomputer.com had written this in response to
http://www.talkcomputer.com/hardware/Re-Windows-Unecessary-Folders-74044-.htm
:
Martin.
Click to expand...

Hi,
When Windows installs an upgrade it creates such folders. Just run
start/programms/accessories/system tolls/disk cleanup and after it
finishes the scan select cleanup system restore at the second tab.

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