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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