Reducing/Removing un-necessary Windows files

hamster

Hi,

I did a recent install of Windows XP lately and I was keeping tabs on how the Windows XP folder grew as I installed all the patches and service ups. I took a shot of the main windows directory and subfolders and here's the shot below. Is there anything here that could go?
For example the ServicePackFiles dir weighs in at 500Mb (25%) of the windows main folder and another folder SoftwareDistribution coming at 390Mb. I know this is nit-picking but I am curious to see what actually is required here and what is backup.
Anyone recognise any un-necessary stuff here that could go? I don't use restore points for windows.

Kevster

You can delete the entire contents of the Prefetch, Temp, $hf_mig$, and PIF folders anyway. The Prefetch folder will populate itself again as you run programs, however. Also, the PIF and $hf_mig$ folders are hidden.


Regarding the SoftwareDistribution folder I'm not sure what you can delete from it. I've looked online and have seen conflicting reports about deleting stuff from it.


Oh, you can also 100% safely remove any folders relating to Windows updates in the parent Windows directory that are named something like: $MSUninstall_KB893803v2$. These are hidden too I think.


Kevin.

hamster

Kevster wrote:

Oh, you can also 100% safely remove any folders relating to Windows updates in the parent Windows directory that are named something like: $MSUninstall_KB893803v2$. These are hidden too I think.
Kevin.

Yeah, when I did a re-install and then applied a ridiculous 73 online updates I had over 500Mb of $MSuninstall files and deleted them fine - thanks just noticed - I have about 50Mb more of these since last week's updates...

I decided to keep track of the windows folder since my lastest re-install:
08-APR-2007 (fresh install)
Total Files Listed:
13279 File(s) 2,165,703,267 bytes
2862 Dir(s) 54,561,275,904 bytes free

15-APR-2007 (a week later - after all my main stuff was installed) - this is the c drive (mainly windows, office and main utilities.... games & such go to a separate drive)
Total Files Listed:
18290 File(s) 3,218,817,789 bytes
4653 Dir(s) 53,500,735,488 bytes free

hamster

Good tip about prefetch btw... I did a check on it - supposed to speed up frequent accessed stuff but can get badly inefficient.... another 30Mb!

"This is a unique technique for WinXP. We know that it is necessary to scrub registry and TEMP files for Win9X/ME/2000 periodically. Prefetch is a new and very useful technique in Windows XP. However, after using XP some time, the prefetch directory can get full of junk and obsolete links in the Prefetch catalog, which can slow down your computer noticeably.

* Open C(system drive):/windows/prefetch, delete those junk and obsolete files, reboot. It is recommended that you do this every month"

hamster

Fonts guys? How many do you have in there? I checked mine and I currently have 101 - that was after office was installed. That seems clean enough. Obviously depends on what you have and need installed.

hamster

Kevster wrote:

Regarding the SoftwareDistribution folder I'm not sure what you can delete from it. I've looked online and have seen conflicting reports about deleting stuff from it.

I did some searching and it seems pretty safe to delete C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Over 359Mb in there! For me all are dated with the timestamp of the time install the initial windows updates.

hamster

Kevster wrote:

Regarding the SoftwareDistribution folder I'm not sure what you can delete from it. I've looked online and have seen conflicting reports about deleting stuff from it.

I did some searching and it seems pretty safe to delete C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Over 359Mb in there! For me all are dated with the timestamp of the time install the initial windows updates.

Another site says
> If you have not installed all updates in the SoftwareDistribution/Downloads
> folder, these will have to be downloaded again.

Kevster

Yeh, I went ahead and deleted the entire contents of the SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and there has been no ill-effect so-far.

If you're truly a neat-freak like me then you might also be interested in a program called x-cleaner. It allows you to erase all sorts of little files that are of no use. The full version of it is pay-only but the freeware version is still excellent:

http://www.xkee.com/x-cleaner-download/

Take care,
Kevin.

hamster

Thanks Kevin - I'll try it out. Added bonus that it's a stand-alone executable, nice one.

NotMe

I don't normally go near the Windows folder but this thread persuaded me to. And I managed to clear 1Gb of junk

Stuff I deleted:


loads of $NtUninstall......$ files
c:\windows\softwaredistribution\download\
c:\windows\prefetch\
c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr\datacoll\
c:\windows\internet logs\ (zonealarm log files)
c:\windows\system32\autorun\ (this was install files for software and drivers that came preinstalled on the laptop.. I moved it off to an external hd)
and some other bits and pieces
I read that deleting $hf_mid$ isn't a good idea so I left that.


Also used the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all system restore points except the last and reduced the amount of disk space used by system restore.

I downloaded that SpaceMonger program... it's great
Before: http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/1203/spacemongerbeforehq1.jpg
After: http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/6559/spacemongeraftertr1.jpg

Kevster

NotMe wrote:

I don't normally go near the Windows folder but this thread persuaded me to. And I managed to clear 1Gb of junk
I read that deleting $hf_mid$ isn't a good idea so I left that.

That's extraordinarily impressive! A Disk Defragment might be a good idea after deleting so much crap. Oh, and I wiped the entire $hf_mid$ directory yesterday but there hasn't been any noticeable ill-effect yet. i'll let you know if there is though.

NotMe wrote:

Also used the Disk Cleanup utility to delete all system restore points except the last and reduced the amount of disk space used by system restore.

I was going to mention that too. You can delete them another way though. All you have to do is turn System Restore off, and then back on again and that will delete the old restore points.

Control Panel -> System -> System Restore


Kevin.

hamster

Kevster wrote:

Oh, and I wiped the entire $hf_mid$ directory yesterday but there hasn't been any noticeable ill-effect yet. i'll let you know if there is though.

I also hastily deleted $hf_mig$ (it had an impressive 540Mb)... so far as you say - no ill effects. But I guess the next time I have a windows update - I'll be getting more "updates" than I should. Reading up about it - says it uses that directory to keep track of what was updated - or dependent on future interleaving updates. We'll see...

I cleared out 1Gb on my old laptop - that was really handy - as it was tight on space (was down to my last 5Gb).

hamster

NotMe wrote:

I downloaded that SpaceMonger program... it's great
Before: http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/1203/spacemongerbeforehq1.jpg
After: http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/6559/spacemongeraftertr1.jpg

Yeah, I love that utility - you really get an insight to those 1Gb game or utilities and see what folders take what or where the waste goes... I found I had 1Gb of PDFs stashed away that I forgot about!

Btw, the best I can get the windows folder down to, without crippling it un-necessary, is 1.7Gb. I didn't go as far as deleting help files. But have hundreds of tiny-weeny .log files was definitely just as bad as wasting space.. one good defrag later and my lappie feels like a newly-installed virgin.

Good job btw.

far2gud

Try this brilliant utility out if you havent already, it will clear alot of crap for ye

http://www.ccleaner.com/

hamster

far2gud wrote:

Try this brilliant utility out if you havent already, it will clear alot of crap for ye

http://www.ccleaner.com/

Forgot that step... thats next! I was recommended that.

I took the chainsaw out and gave that laptop a spring clean. Went from 112K files down to 37K files... and what a difference that made! Most of the rubbish was emulator related material, books and audio, executable demos....
Now defragging, cleaning, virus scanning etc is a lot faster -

16-APR-2007
Total Files Listed:
112491 File(s) 12,537,483,000 bytes
11940 Dir(s) 7,286,915,072 bytes free

Afterwards...
Total Files Listed:
37301 File(s) 5,428,324,675 bytes
7494 Dir(s) 14,560,346,112 bytes free

hamster

This page goes into depth regarding some of the folders... dllcache for one... under system32. Apparently holds a copy of EVERY .dll you have. :rolleyes: Mine is 421Mb!.. or 25% of the entire windows folder

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=80511

edit: deleting the copies is apparently not really a good idea as the copies help the stability of the system - ie part of the Windows File Protection system. But it sure is a bloaty way of doing it...

Kevster

This whole thread has proven to be quite beneficial. I already considered my computer to be neat & tidy but I have managed to erase about 2,500 files and freed up 500MB since yesterday!


Thanks.


PS - Your blog is quite interesting, hamster.

far2gud

Bump for a useful thread

workaccount

Im going to throw this into my bookmarks.

Capt'n Midnight

what's the story on the c:\windows\installer folder ?

how do you remove stuff from this without getting grief later on when an ordinary user logs on and it starts looking for the install source ?

far2gud

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

what's the story on the c:\windows\installer folder ?

how do you remove stuff from this without getting grief later on when an ordinary user logs on and it starts looking for the install source ?

You would probably run into problems when trying to remove or update software aswell. Looks like its unsafe to just delete this stuff willy nilly. Maybe give this a try

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

matt-dublin

what about vista, does anyone know what you can clean down in that?
(vista ultimate)

hamster

matt-dublin wrote:

what about vista, does anyone know what you can clean down in that?
(vista ultimate)

Actually - just how big is your Vista windows directory now? Or anyone who has it - with their usual load of software installed?

matt-dublin

i have about 1gb of personal files on my machine and the total usage is about 25gb