How To Use Patchcleaner

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Aleshia Ducharme

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Aug 4, 2024, 9:44:26 PM8/4/24

to pampquarweane

HelloI have a Windows 10 22H2 OS on a computer which is 9 years old, but working well (it is a high end computer). It has 128GB of disk space. 63.2GB of this space is used by a single hidden folder - C:\Windows\Installer, all of the space is taken up by multiple .msp (and a few .msi) files, which have been progressively building on my machine for the past 9 years. My question is simple - how do I get rid of the non-needed files from this directory, and why have they been accumulating.

There is an old Windows program called msizap which used to solve this, and a 3rd party program called patchcleaner which was created 5 years ago, but I was wondering if there could be a Windows approved way. There are a number of articles on this problem - namely -i-safely-remove-msi-and-msp-files-that-are-in-c-windows-i... and -us/windows/forum/all/my-windows-installer-folder-is-over-90-gb-does... . The only advice I have got so far is to do a fresh install of Windows, which I cannot do as I have a linux partition that would be destroyed by doing this.

I therefore have two requests - the first one easier than the second:

1. A new windows program which can remove al the .msp files that are no longer relevant (doing what msizap used to do)

2. An update to Windows in a month or so which will ensure they don't accumulate again in this folder.

@Reza_Ameri Thank you! I am afraid I have already done both of those items. I put it here as I was recommended by customer services to do so, and as I cannot find a safe way to reduce this incredibly large folder. The feedback had a character limit, so I have put a short summary there and pointed to this request as well.