Remove Windows Update Download Files
Mallory Chowansky
I copied a vimrc file from a windows box running gvim and tried using it on an OSX box. Turns out there are a bunch of characters that my unix vim doesn't like in the file. I assume they're Windows EOL characters or something - doesn't really matter. Anyway, Is there an easy way to remove them all at once, or convert the file to a unix friendly format?
I'm in the process of backing up an XP system, and I'm trying to save as much space as I can for long term storage. I would like to know what directories that might accumulate with time I can safely remove, to minimize the space required. What can I do?
Always delete you're temporary internet files, as well as system temporary files. I haven't used XP in a while, so I'm not sure where those files are stored. I'm guessing many are under C:/Temp/. Either way, windows comes with a disk cleanup utility. All of the places it offers to clean should be acceptable locations to delete files from, as long as you don't know of anything off hand that you need from there. Let me know if you can't find the disk cleanup utility and I will try and find it for you.
Look into the hidden files and folders as well as deleting some of those I'm sure could free up space. I have Win7, so to locate the hidden files and folders: click My Computer, open up your C: drive, click on Organize in the top left, scroll down to Folders and Search Options, click View, and select the radio button that says Show Hidden Files, Folders and Drives then delete the hidden files and you see fit that would free up space.
Windows contains plenty of files and folders that you don't need. Between hidden caches, old junk that wastes space, and files you can delete to solve problems, knowing what's safe to remove from Windows can be challenging.
Aside from wasting time doing this yourself when you could automate the process, it's safer to let the Disk Cleanup tool do these cleanings for you. This helps you avoid common Windows maintenance mistakes, like accidentally deleting files that you need or messing with the wrong folders.
The Disk Cleanup tool helps you reclaim disk space on your Windows computer and is simple to use. You can open it by searching for Disk Cleanup in the Start menu and selecting a drive (C: in most cases). Let it scan, and you'll see several categories of files you can erase. For more options, choose Clean up system files and provide administrator permissions before you go through the list.
If you find this interface too clunky, you can browse to Settings > System > Storage to try the newer storage cleanup tool in Windows 10 and 11. Click Temporary files in the list of options, then you'll see a list populate that's similar to what Disk Cleanup offers.
This isn't a full guide to the Disk Cleanup tool, so we're not going to look at every entry in the menu. However, the following options are low-hanging fruit (make sure to select Clean up system files first to see them all):
Now, let's look at what you can delete from Windows 10 and Windows 11 safely. Usually, these files are on your C: drive, but you might find them elsewhere if you have multiple storage disks and have installed Windows with custom options.
Hibernation mode on your PC is similar to sleep mode, except the system saves all your open work to the storage drive and then shuts down. You can remove the battery from your laptop and stay in hibernation for a week, then start back up and pick up right where you left off.
That's all it takes to disable hibernation. Windows should delete hiberfil.sys on its own when you do this; feel free to delete it after if not. Note that disabling hibernate mode will also prevent your computer from using fast startup in Windows 10 and 11. However, this isn't much of a loss, as this feature is known to cause slow Windows boot times and other problems.
You can access the Recycle Bin through the shortcut on your desktop. If you don't see that, type shell:RecycleBinFolder into File Explorer's navigation bar. Once here, you'll see everything you've deleted recently. Right-click on individual items and click Delete to permanently erase them, or choose Restore to send a file back to its original location.
In this dialog, you can change the maximum size of the bin, or even choose Don't move files to the Recycle Bin. With this option, Windows skips the bin and permanently removes items when you delete them.
We don't recommend this, because the Recycle Bin gives you a second chance in case of accidental deletion. Similarly, Display delete confirmation dialog will require an extra step whenever you erase a file.
Whenever you upgrade your version of Windows, the system keeps a copy of your prior files, called Windows.old. This folder essentially holds everything that made up your old installation, in case something didn't transfer correctly.
Windows automatically removes this folder a short time after upgrading, but you can remove it yourself if you're crunched for space. It won't delete if you try to go through File Explorer, so to erase it from your drive properly, type Disk Cleanup into the Start Menu and launch the tool as described earlier.
Click Clean up system files at the bottom of the window and let the utility do another scan. Once that's done, look for the Previous Windows installation(s) and delete it using this tool.
As you'd expect, removing these files makes it harder to recover data and troubleshoot Windows in case of an issue. After performing a Windows upgrade (even just to the latest version of Windows 10 or 11) we advise you to hold onto this folder until you're sure everything is working properly.
In effect, this folder is useless today. ActiveX and Java are effectively extinct on the modern web, and Internet Explorer is no longer supported. Thus, your Downloaded Program Files folder might already be empty (or not even exist), but feel free to clean out the contents if it's not.
The LiveKernelReports folder is another directory that likely comes up when you're scanning for large files on your computer. This folder is home to dump files, which are ongoing information logs that Windows keeps. If your computer runs into an issue, you can analyze the contents of log files with Event Viewer to start troubleshooting your problem.
Any huge files ending with the DMP file extension in this folder are safe to delete if you don't need to look deeper into them. Like the above locations, though, we recommend using Disk Cleanup instead of deleting the file yourself.
While the Rempl folder isn't large, you might be surprised when you see it appear on your system. It contains several small files, and you might even notice a few Task Manager processes connected to it.
So can you delete the Rempl folder? There are seemingly no adverse effects from doing so. However, since it only takes up a few megabytes and can make Windows upgrades less frustrating, it's best to keep it around.
It takes a bit of looking around to find them, but your computer holds plenty of files and folders that aren't necessary. Remember that your modern versions of Windows do a pretty good job of keeping themselves clean, so you don't have to constantly purge the contents of these folders unless you're dangerously low on disk space.
Also, I'll use the terms directory and folder interchangeably for the rest of the tutorial. "Folder" is a newer term that became popular with early desktop GUIs, but folder and directory basically mean the same thing.
You could cd into the Subfolder directory and remove the file, then come back with cd .. and run the rmdir Subfolder command again, but that would get tedious. And just imagine if there were a bunch of other nested files and directories!
All of these commands should work in PowerShell, which is basically Command Prompt version 2.0. Also, PowerShell has a bunch of cool aliases like ls and clear that should feel right at home if you're familiar with the Mac/Linux command line.
I installed Visual Studio 2008 SP1 + MSDN and some small tools and libraries that don't take much space. Over time the system disk's free space has been going down (I suspect because of regular system updates - NetFx (.NET), service packs, and regular updates).
Question 2
I also found lots of files in C:/Windows/Installer folder.
Is it possible to determine which .msp file goes with which patch?
I would like to delete some of them, because they do take a lot of space.
Similarly, in the registry path "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\",
The key will usually match in a subtree against the "ProductIcon" name.
There will be a "ProductName" field next to it that will give you an association.
Msizap is a command-line tool that can delete the configuration data that Windows Installer maintains for products that it installs, including the directories, files, registry subkeys, and registry entries in which Windows Installer stores configuration data.
The article discusses up to Windows Server 2003.
Update: This Microsoft KB description also limits at Server 2003.
It should work for Server 2008, or there would be another version for it.
The article describes existence of two versions.
16 GB is pushing it for a system volume for Win2008 - a fresh install with updates has taken up 15 GB on my 2008 VM. I am not sure about freeing up space within the system volume by deleting "unnecessary" files and folders, but the good news is it is a VM, it is Win2008, and you can actually make the system disk bigger quite easily because of these 2 things.
Goes without saying that you could also do this to your Data disk as well. Even if this wasn't a VM you could still add another physical disk and extend onto that although you may be creating a less fault-tolerant configuration unless you are extending onto a RAID volume. Because this is a VM, all ESX does is make the vmdk file larger.
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