Readers Questions. 

IF01701 

Q.  I have XP Home installed on my HP Notebook. As with most Windows users I get automatic Windows updates from Microsoft. After the updates are downloaded and installed a folder is created in my C:\Windows directory with "uninstall" data. (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB8733.....etc.) It has gotten to the point where the number of these folders has grown to well over 100 and I'm wondering, if my system is working well after the update was installed, Can I safely delete all the folders manually without creating any havoc on my system? And if I can manually delete the folders, would I have to make any Registry changes also? Thanks in advance for your help.

A.  They are the uninstall files created for each windows update that is applied.

They are necessary if you ever want to uninstall a windows update. If you don’t think you ever going to need to uninstall a update then I guess you could delete them if you need the disk space.

Some Technicians also recommend the following when deleting the files you are referring to.

If you do delete the folders in Windows, it is a good idea to also clean out references to them in the registry.

You can use a registry cleaner with an undo function. Or if COMFORTABLE in the registry you can do it manually in Run > regedit:

- Backup the registry first.
- Search the entire registry for $NtUninstallKB*
- Under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Updates\WindowsXP\SP3: Open each key and Modify - remove ONLY the uninstall string (pathway) in the Uninstall command.
- Under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall: Delete the keys for folders labeled $NtUninstallKB....

Again, no one should fool around in the registry without knowing what to do. Leaving some obsolete keys won't cause as many problems as a messed up registry!

Let me know if you need anything else.

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