Throwing more space at something is not always the Cure-All. Backing up 2GB of Service Pack uninstallers/etc on every server/workstation is waste of space and time during backups, but more importantly RESTORES. I do DR drills a lot, and there is nothing more annoying than watching progress bars for useless files that you will never need. I try to keep my servers THIN and as lightweight as possible. Even my Exchange server is only using 7.5 GB on the OS Partition. -Sam
________________________________ From: Andrew S. Baker [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 2:00 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: SuspectedSpam:Re: Question about a folder under C:\Windows Agreed. Whenever possible, make sure your OS drive/partition is large enough (30GB min) and store as much as possible on other drives so that the OS can find the things it wants where it expects to find them. I used to tweak many things about installation paths in NT4 and even a little in 2000, but stopped, because it was no longer worth the effort. The OS will punish you for making the wrong decision, and the impact might not be apparent for a while. Other than TEMP folders, and things related to IE, I don't mess around with those Windows folders too much. -ASB: http://XeeSM.com/AndrewBaker Providing Competitive Advantage through Effective IT Leadership On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Steven M. Caesare <[email protected]> wrote: Careful with that. There are dependencies there for future things (think removing/re-adding a windows component), that you may not realize. -sc From: Sam Cayze [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 2:29 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Question about a folder under C:\Windows "It's best to not touch folders within the .\Windows directory to try to reclaim disk space." You can safely delete all the update install folders for Windows Update and Service Packs if your machine is running stable and you doubt you will ever need to uninstall them. Frees up a LOT of space. Sam ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 1:17 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Question about a folder under C:\Windows As hinted, the Install Clean-up Tool is essentially MSIZAP with a GUI. It's best to use it by: 1. Use the Conrol Panel Add/Remove programs to unistall applications, then 2. Run the Installer Clean-Up tool, and select any apps you believe should have been removed. (Add/Remove sometimes leaves pieces behihd, depending on how well written the app was.) 3. Check your file system - some pieces get left behind in the .\Program Files directory. Do NOT use the clean-up tool first in order to uninstall apps! That will do a great job of making the Add/Remove control panel applet unusable for that app. Back to the original "problem"... It's best to not touch folders within the .\Windows directory to try to reclaim disk space. (There is probably a .\Windows\temp folder, but I've never seen much in those folders.) Use something like WinTree, WinDirStat, etc to locate big files or folders. Some browser caches can get to be pretty big. If a machine has multiple users, some of those profiles (some of which are local caches of a roaming user) can approach Gbs in size. I've seen machines with several crash dump files in the root directory. (Some crash dump files also end up in an administrators local settings profile instead of the rood.) -- richard Ben Scott <[email protected]> wrote on 09/28/2009 01:05:59 PM: > On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Joseph Heaton <[email protected]> wrote: > > The c:\windows\installer folder. On the system I'm looking at it > is a hidden system folder. Does anyone know the function of this > folder, and whether or not the contents can be cleared? > > That folder is part of the -- wait for it -- Windows Installer. > (Also called "Microsoft Installer" or MSI.) The folder gets used to > store a number of things, including database information about > installed packages, cached patches for (re)installation, program icons > (stored as .EXE files), temporary files during install, and other > mysterious stuff. It typically uses opaque IDs rather than > human-readable names. It's your classic Microsoft big-ball-of-mud. > > You don't want to go "pruning" in there without specific direction. > If you remove a file related to a currently-installed package, then > future attempts at upgrading, repairing, or removing that package may > fail. For example, patches are cached so they can be re-applied or > reversed during future operations, and database info tells MSI exactly > what to do during an uninstall. > > However, it is also quite possible for stale files to accumulate in > there. Unfortunately, since it's a rather opaque data store, it's > hard to know what's needed and what isn't. > > The MSIZAP utility has a command, G, to "remove orphaned cached > Windows Installer data files". Exactly how it determines what an > orphan is, I don't know, but it's supposedly safe as long as you don't > use the "!" modifier to force things. I don't know if it's > comprehensive -- I don't know if "MSIZAP G" will find all possible > stale/orphan files. I suspect not. > > The other options in MSIZAP generally remove information from the > MSI store without actually touching package files on your system. In > other words, indiscriminate use of MSIZAP will just remove the > *record* of an install, not the install itself. You have been warned. > > The MSIZAP tool comes with the "Windows Installer Cleanup Utility". > You can get it from MSKB 290301. > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
