Deleting Old Windows Update Uninstall Files?

Frozen-Solid asks: "With the release of Windows XP SP2, I got to thinking about how all of these windows updates leave their uninstall information 'just in case' you need to uninstall them for some random reason. However, after you've had them up and running for a few weeks/months/years and no longer need that backup information, is it safe to just delete those ugly hidden directories from the Windows directory or is there a 'safer' way to free up that wasted space? My current update backup collection is totaling over half a gig which could easily be better spent elsewhere."

Ask Slashdot? How about asking Google first..

[OutRigged]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2 coff=1&q=remove+windows+hotfix+uninstall&btnG=Sear ch [google.com]

Uninstall

[Konster]

It is presumably safe to remove unless you need to uninstall a service pack, or if that service pack requires files from the uninstall directory.

I've always deleted them after a few day's worth of testing, with no ill side effects.

Your milage can and will vary :)

DELETE EM!! because:

[pio!pio!]

Well since installing SP2, the add/remove entries for all the other little hotfixes were removed. So I assume this means they were rolled up into the service pack which makes sense. Therefore I just deleted all the uninstall directories for those little suckers leaving only the one for service pack 2

Re:Reinstall

[Anonymous Coward]

The instructions you mention (and inadequately link to by not using anchor tags, curse you and that inserted space) are not the most efficient way to add the service pack to your install.

For XP SP2, you only need to do this:
Copy the I386 folder to your C: drive, unpack the SP2 file using Winzip to a directory called SP2, and then:
CD SP2\update
update.exe /integrate:C:\I386.

Voila, when you install from this I386 directory, the necessary files will already be the SP2 versions. I did this yesterday, and did a clean install - Service Pack 2, no rebooting, no patches found on Windows Update. It also helps if you read up on the unattended install files and do a bit of setup with driver files - after a vanilla XP install, I need to install video drivers, motherboard updates, sound card drivers and a network card driver. Now they're all ready to go at startup, and my desktop even has the right resolution.

Now if I just get it to disable all those unnecessary services, tweak the options, and silently install my favourite apps, I could reinstall every week!

Re:DELETE EM!! because:

[penguinboy]

They're just hidden. There's a little checkbox in Add/Remove to re-show them.

Re:Reinstall

[Bachus9000]

First of all, you don't even need to extract the service pack from the windows xp KBblah.exe file. Just run $SP2_filename.exe /integrate:c:\i386 (note the lack of spaces between integrate, the :, and the C). As for registry tweaks, applications, etc, I highly suggest checking out this site [msfn.org] and its accompanying forum. You also might want to look into Nlite [msfn.org], a (beta) tool that can remove those nasty things such as WMP, MSN Explorer, etc from your win2000/XP/2003 installation source so they never get installed in the first place.

Re:Source Bunnies..

[Anonymous Coward]

Crossover Office...40 dollar purchase, lets you run Photoshop 7.0 on Linux perfectly fine, along with Office XP, Dreamweaver, Flash and multiple other programs. Photoshop really isnt a reason to keep windows around anymore :)