Windows XP forum: Cleaning C:\WINDOWS\Installer\ folder

So there's is that little app.
It opens up with a few douzen lines for me to choose from (to uninstall or not).
It wouldn't let me target the C:\WINDOWS\Installer\ folder.

O.K. Thx I'll be carefull guys.

What little app is this?

What are these few dozen lines?

Why are you intent on deleting the Installer folder?

Mark

The little app is msicuu2.exe.
Recently I discovered the installer folder and noticed it was just over a Gig so I wanted to see if there was any cluther in there I could cleaned up.
Searching I learned that Microsoft made an 'Install clean up utile' I think initialy intended for Office suite - for when someone aborted an install and wanted to clean up and start again.
It found a new purpose in the C:\WINDOWS\Installer\ folder. In some the installer folder got very big for some users so it proved very useful.

It certainly is a 'user beware app' so i guess when too many catastrophes were occuring Microsoft pulled it.
But here Grif has fished one out for me. So It lives!

But when i open it - it has a list of the apps I can select with the possibility of removing them should i want to. But there are no other fonctions or 'buttons'.
What it sees, 'the lines' as i put it, are the apps, updates, pluggins and service packs.
But It all looks necessary to me so I'll just leave well enough alone and leave that folder undisturbed.

Dan

..alone.. That is, if you don't want to have uninstall problems in the future.

Hope this helps.

Grif

After installing that utility, don't bother running it. You need to run msizap.exe G (found in that folder) from the command line. Don't try selecting from the list; that's not really the best solution.

(Clarifying because this was one of the top Google hits for my search.)

Or even better, take the sage advice above, and don't mess with anything inside the Windows folder. To do so is to invite trouble unless you know what you're doing, and people who know what they're doing tend to steer clear.

the c:\windows\temp folder can be cleaned without any issues occurring. And the same goes for the logfiles the Zonealarm firewall puts in c:\windows\Internet logs.

But that's all I do in the Windows folder myself.

Kees

But what if we DO know what we're doing? Thanks for the warning, but don't say things like "or even better". You don't know what everyone's unique situations are. I am nigh 100% sure that I do indeed want to mess around with my Windows folder. I have CompTIA A+-cert training and blah blah blah, and yet, here I am, wanting to mess around in Windows.

I don't know why you'd want to fool around with it unless you're just looking for something to tinker with and don't have anything better to do. When you can buy a 1 TB hard drive these days for as little as $70, why spend a lot of time chasing a relatively few bytes? It's your time and your computer, but if you have anything on it you don't want to lose, I sure hope you have a good backup for it.

Good luck.