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Clean up Extremely bloated (27GB+) C:/WINDOWS/installer folder


Urge

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I'm trying to clean up my son's computer (he's 29) and the computer has a 70GB HD. He only has 2% free space. So in looking for what is taking up all his space I found C:/WINDOWS/installer is 27.2GB-yes giga not mega- with 2,231 files/61 folders. For comparison, on my computer it's 142MB with 172 files/64folders. I spent a few hours tonight searching on Google with not a lot of luck but with suggestions to use msiinv.exe and msizap.exe(I downloaded both but haven't run them yet). Using those might mean that someone (me?) might be reinstalling everything on his computer so I thought I'd ask here before I step in it bigtime. Is there some little program that will clean this up without risking the viability of all the programs on the computer or does someone have a suggestion or somewhere I might read up more on this?

Urge

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Here's the MS page on the cleanup utility.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility might be able to help. You can use the utility to remove installation information for programs that were installed by using Windows Installer. Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer. However, it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation, upgrade, or uninstall over.
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msiinv/msizap are normally used for cleaning out failed installations. If you use these wrongly you could indeed end up reinstalling everything.

You do not say what steps you have already taken. Have you, for example, run Disk cleanup?

Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
Edited by James_A
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I did run clean up but that does nothing to address the underlying problem.

here is what MS has to say about manually removing the files. With over 2200 files this is just not practical.

Last Review : January 27, 2005

To work around this problem, you can manually remove each orphaned .msp file, after you search for each file in the system registry and do not find the file. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Using Windows Explorer, open the \Windows\Installer folder.

2. Make a note of all files in the folder with an .msp file extension.

3. Click Start, and then click Run.

4. In the Open box, type Regedit and then click OK.

5. In the left pane of the Registry Editor, click My Computer to select it.

6. Click Find on the Edit menu.

7. Type the first .msp file name in the Find What box, and then click Find Next.

8. If you receive the message "Finished searching through the registry", the .msp file is orphaned and can be deleted. Make a note so that it can be deleted.

If the Registry Editor finds a LocalPackage name with the .msp file extension in the Data column, the .msp file is referenced and should not be deleted.

9. Repeat steps 5 through 8 for each .msp file that you noted from step 2.

10. For each .msp file that you noted for deletion, right-click the .msp file in Windows Explorer, and then click Delete on the shortcut menu. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MS provides The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility(Msicuu.exe ) to help but...

Warning The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility is provided "as is" to help resolve installation problems for programs that use Microsoft Windows Installer. If you use this utility, you may have to reinstall other programs. Caution is advised.

HOW DO I RUN THE WINDOWS INSTALLER CLEAN UP UTILITY?

To run the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility, use either of the following methods:

- Click 'Start', click 'All Programs' (or 'Programs' on some operating systems), and then click the shortcut for the

Windows Installer Clean Up Utility.

- Find and run the Msicuu.exe file.

A dialog box will be displayed that contains a message, a list of installed products, and four buttons.

The message that is displayed is as follows:

Continuing further will make permanent changes to your system. You may

need to reinstall some or all applications on your system that used the

Windows Installer technology to be installed. If you do not want to

proceed, please press the 'Exit' button now. Choosing 'Remove' will

make the permanent changes.

The list contains the titles of all the installed programs that are registered with Windows Installer. Because the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility installation also uses Windows Installer, the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility should be included in the list. Select the programs that you wish to remove. (To select multiple items in the list, hold down the SHIFT key or the CTRL key as you select the items.)

The four buttons in the dialog box are as follows:

[select All] - Selects all the programs in the list.

[Clear All] - Clears the selection of all the programs in the list.

[Remove] - Removes the Windows Installer installation information for

the selected program or programs.

[Exit] - Exits the Windows Installer Clean Up Utility.

If you click 'Remove,' the following prompt is displayed:

Warning - All items selected will be removed from the Windows Installer

database. In order for the items to work properly, you must individually

re-install all items selected. Select OK to continue removing product,

Cancel to abort.

If you click 'OK,' all the Windows Installer information that is associated with the selected programs is removed. This includes the entries for the programs in the Add/Remove Programs tool in Control Panel. If you remove the installation information for an installed program, the program is prevented from being able to add or remove components or to repair itself. NOTE: If you remove the installation information, files or shortcuts for the programs themselves are not removed. You should reinstall the programs before you try to use them.

It does not appear to be selective at all. They (MS) also have this little program msizap.exe included in The Windows Installer CleanUp Utility and I found this info to just identify the orphaned or duplicated files.

How to Safely Delete Orphaned Patches

After safely identifying orphaned patches, you can delete them. There are a couple of different ways to identify orphaned patches.

If you have the Windows SDK or the older Platform SDK installed or are willing to install either, you can use msizap.exe to identify and remove orphaned data files such as patches. Run the following command. You will find msizap.exe in the bin folder of the Windows SDK or Platform SDK installation directory.

msizap.exe G!

If you don't want to install either SDK just to get this executable, you can determine which patches are registered and applicable and delete extra patches you find under %WINDIR%\Installer. I have attached a simple script(WMsps.vbs) to identify which patches are registered – those patches you should not remove. So I ran msizap.exe G! and this is the result. very unsatisfying, it did not perform as expected.

C:\Program Files>msizap.exe G

MSIZAP - Zaps (almost) all traces of Windows Installer data from your machine.

Copyright © Microsoft Corporation, 1998 - 2000. All rights reserved.

Usage: msizap T[A!] {product code}

msizap T[A!] {msi package}

msizap *[A!] ALLPRODUCTS

msizap PSA?!

* = remove all Windows Installer folders and regkeys;

adjust shared DLL counts; stop Windows Installer service

T = remove all info for given product code

P = remove In-Progress key

S = remove Rollback Information

A = for any specified removal, just change ACLs to Admin Full Control

? = verbose help

! = force 'yes' response to any prompt

CAUTION: Products installed by the Windows Installer may fail to

function after using msizap

So then I ran the .vbs script and it showed 22 files one at a time on the screen in individual boxes. Maybe 15-20 characters per file. I have no clue how to copy them. In add/remove programs I found 135 entries! So this is my dilemma, can anyone help? I know this is a very long post and you have already attained hero status if you have read this far. Thanks for listening,

Urge

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Well, I finally made it to the end of the last post......

I am inclined to say even more strongly: steer clear of msicuu / msizap, at least for the time being. The first step would seem to be trying to identify at least one of the packages in the installer folder. I assume that most of them have names that end in ".msi"?

Also when you say 61 folders, are they all in folders with names like WINDOS\installer\{ABDC1234-AB12-CD34-EF56-123456789ABC}? If so, you MAY be only dealing with 61 programs not 2200.

Try picking one (let's call it xxyyzz.msi) and search for it in the registry. That might at least tie it in with a program name that you recognise.

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I'm trying to clean up my son's computer (he's 29) and the computer has a 70GB HD. He only has 2% free space. So in looking for what is taking up all his space I found C:/WINDOWS/installer is 27.2GB-yes giga not mega- with 2,231 files/61 folders. For comparison, on my computer it's 142MB with 172 files/64folders. I spent a few hours tonight searching on Google with not a lot of luck but with suggestions to use msiinv.exe and msizap.exe(I downloaded both but haven't run them yet). Using those might mean that someone (me?) might be reinstalling everything on his computer so I thought I'd ask here before I step in it bigtime. Is there some little program that will clean this up without risking the viability of all the programs on the computer or does someone have a suggestion or somewhere I might read up more on this?

Urge

Removing files is a dangerous undertaking even under the best of circumstances. Seems you have about 43gig of space being used by other than the installer files, and with 2% space left, even removing files to the recycle bin (not really removed from HD) leaves you no room to play except deleting but a few at a time, then doing any empty of the bin. I also don't know what is taking up 43gig of space considering a normal windows install other than added in pgms, music, or graphics files, or documents. Sooo..do NO cleanup until!!

1. You need to backup of your important system files, or image the HD first, and since you don't have room on that HD to move anything too, I would NOT touch it until you do a backup.

2. Add a second 150 gig drive, this can be USB add on if a hard install is not possible.

(I have all my documents, music, and pics(graphics files) on my second drive along with a system image using Acronis True Image.)

3 You could also run a duplicate file finder pgm, to help clean up, but again care must be taken even doing that.

4 This link below from CNET and the excellent answer may help you out AFTER you do the backup, and then you can play, and be prepared to tear your hair out a few times.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.ht...ssageID=2544616

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I don't know if it's related but in the WINDOWS directory there are 173 files like this C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB957095$. When you open up the installer folder there are 53 files like this {1A24F9E8-009D-40FC-ABED-2AAFFAB0F4F0}. Below that are 1830 files like this 1a8e430a.msp (by far the vast majority of them) & 9670de5.msi. They are between 5-10 MBs on the ones I looked at. When I looked at properties for these files this is what you get for all the ones I looked at (a small subset)- Office 2003 Patch;pp;8227;FullFile;ALL. So it would seem that the .msp files are my problem. Is there a way to isolate them and just delete those? if it's just Office that's causing the problem maybe the fix isn't so bad. If my son's computer just has a restore disk can I just reload Office? I don't know how any of this was installed, I am going to be seeing him later today and I'll ask. Thanks,

Urge

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I don't know if it's related but in the WINDOWS directory there are 173 files like this C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB957095$. When you open up the installer folder there are 53 files like this {1A24F9E8-009D-40FC-ABED-2AAFFAB0F4F0}. Below that are 1830 files like this 1a8e430a.msp (by far the vast majority of them) & 9670de5.msi. They are between 5-10 MBs on the ones I looked at. When I looked at properties for these files this is what you get for all the ones I looked at (a small subset)- Office 2003 Patch;pp;8227;FullFile;ALL. So it would seem that the .msp files are my problem. Is there a way to isolate them and just delete those? if it's just Office that's causing the problem maybe the fix isn't so bad. If my son's computer just has a restore disk can I just reload Office? I don't know how any of this was installed, I am going to be seeing him later today and I'll ask. Thanks,

Urge

Fortunately, a smart programmer named Doug Knox has prepared a utility that will assist in removing hotfix files if you so desire. It has the surprisingly intuitive name of XP Remove Hotfix Backup. The utility won't remove all the files in your NtUninstall folder, but it will let you easily remove the ones related to hotfixes.

To summarize, you can delete these folders, just as long as you are sure as you don't want to uninstall that particular Windows update. Your best bet would be to keep them, but if your are desperate for hard disk space wait for a week or two to insure that the updates you have installed are running fine, and then you can delete the corresponding NtUnistall folder safely.

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm

.msi files are installation files for patches and programs. Some of them are designated as " run once" and then go to the temp files to be deleted. Others are attached to the programs and can't be deleted without damaging the program/patch. I frankly would leave them alone IMHO.

I would still do a backup of files that your Son wants, then do the cleanup, or if a complete re-install is on your mind..then reinstall Office after backing up your .doc files.

Hope that helps!

Edited by Galt
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I agree with what Galt has said. Especailly the bit about backing up everything first. Buy an external USB hard drive if you don't already have one.

Also, you'll probably have gathered that files like C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB957095$ are put there by Windows Update.

The free version of Doug Knox's program will clear all of these in one go. If you want to remove only some of them, or remove them one at a time you have to purchase the paid-for version.

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I am going to give Doug $5. today and give it a shot but will this permanently fix the problem? All of you reading this didn't have this issue so what was different? I guess since the computer has already downloaded the files it won't be doing it again. I haven't checked with Windows Update yet so maybe I should do that and see if all these updates have in fact installed or have they been trying repeatedly to do so and that is the problem. In rereading Doug's info I see this "NOTE: This utility does NOT remove application specific hotfix backups (Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Media player and etc.). It will only remove hotfix backups that are specific to the Windows XP operating system." Will it remove Office hotfixes? Maybe I should be asking Doug these questions. Alright, he has an e-mail address on his site and he is a MS MVP so he will probably answer me. I will post back what I find. Thanks,

Urge

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You can instead try CCleaner. It's free and also has the ability to cleanup windows update uninstall files along with other crap.

1) As long as your system isn't suffering from any adverse effects of the windows updates, you are okay to delete those files. Be aware you can't uninstall them after you do.

2) Windows Cleanup utility, as far as I know, does actually uninstall the program and remove it from system according to my experience. I wouldn't recommend using it unless you know for sure you want to get rid of a certain program. Run the program and it will list the programs installed on your system. You can select which ones you want to remove permanently. It doesn't hurt to run the program.

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I agree with spacesurfer. Use CCleaner to remove junk data. Also have your son uninstall old games and other things he no longer needs.

Defragmenting will also help and you may want to use a registry defrag utility such as Auslogics one.

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I am going to give Doug $5. today and give it a shot but will this permanently fix the problem? All of you reading this didn't have this issue so what was different? I guess since the computer has already downloaded the files it won't be doing it again. I haven't checked with Windows Update yet so maybe I should do that and see if all these updates have in fact installed or have they been trying repeatedly to do so and that is the problem. In rereading Doug's info I see this "NOTE: This utility does NOT remove application specific hotfix backups (Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Media player and etc.). It will only remove hotfix backups that are specific to the Windows XP operating system." Will it remove Office hotfixes? Maybe I should be asking Doug these questions. Alright, he has an e-mail address on his site and he is a MS MVP so he will probably answer me. I will post back what I find. Thanks,

Urge

I have had exactly the problem you indicate as I have done system cleanup, and repairs for years, which was why I posted. The problem is, there is "no easy solution" and unless you know exactly what your doing, or you will be rebuilding it from scratch. What I indicate in my other posts can be done, without harm and with a bit of care. If Office is another problem, have you tried the "detect and repair" option in the Office help? Have you gone to the other links I provided, and done some simple cleanup of the system, such as .tmp files. etc. CCleaner is fine as indicated for some of that, but it's not what you indicated as 23gig of installer and uninstaller files.

Also, messing with a system with 2% space left is a hazard in itself as there is NO place to put the deleted files without possibly loading the drive to a full crash point. That means they need to be permanently removed not just put in the recycle bin, since you seem adverse to doing a backup before you start.

One additional utility I use and has a shredder for files is this: http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/ along with other options for cleaning up, and improving system performance.

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I'm trying to clean up my son's computer (he's 29) and the computer has a 70GB HD. He only has 2% free space. So in looking for what is taking up all his space I found C:/WINDOWS/installer is 27.2GB-yes giga not mega- with 2,231 files/61 folders. For comparison, on my computer it's 142MB with 172 files/64folders. I spent a few hours tonight searching on Google with not a lot of luck but with suggestions to use msiinv.exe and msizap.exe(I downloaded both but haven't run them yet). Using those might mean that someone (me?) might be reinstalling everything on his computer so I thought I'd ask here before I step in it bigtime. Is there some little program that will clean this up without risking the viability of all the programs on the computer or does someone have a suggestion or somewhere I might read up more on this?

Some things can be done the easy way! What I would do is get a new HDD, 160 GB (if you can find one), 240 GB or 320 GB. Pop the new drive in as a slave, and boot with a DiscWizard type CDROM. Clone the old drive to the new one (C: to C:). Remove the old one (store it away as a failsafe backup), switch the new one to primary (C:). Reboot. Done.

This gives him the advantage of a newer, faster and younger HDD with more room than he will need. No data is lost. No programs are broken. I would do this now because WinXP is probably NTFS compressing everything in sight in order to save room. This is a performance hit.

New drives of that size are in the $60-$100 range. If you buy a 'Retail' kit instead of 'OEM' you normally get the CDROM included for free, plus some extras like cables. But even if you buy an 'OEM' the CDROM which does the Cloning should be available from any of the HDD manufacturers for free from their websites (I know that Seagate does).

If you do buy a Seagate drive the process will be very simple (they require only that one of the two drives is a Seagate for their DiscWizard to work). NB: I have no connection with Seagate, but they are pretty much the best at the moment and their warranty is usually 5 years.

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What I indicate in my other posts can be done, without harm and with a bit of care.
Also, messing with a system with 2% space left is a hazard in itself as there is NO place to put the deleted files without possibly loading the drive to a full crash point. That means they need to be permanently removed not just put in the recycle bin, since you seem adverse to doing a backup before you start.

I only had a minute when I posted last and just wanted to comment on the xp_remove_hotfix_backup utility. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had done a disk clean up. I tried to defrag but the drive is too full to do it effectively. I did not know about the "detect and repair" option in office but I will try it. My intention all along (and I have already spoken with my son about this) was to eliminate uneeded programs and files. I am a big believer in backups. On my computer I have several partitions that are easy to back up (OS,Program Files, Data, Games, etc.). I use Drive Image to backup-love it. Just because I didn't mention it doesn't mean I wasn't going to do it. I'm still trying to come up with a plan and it would be nice to know why this happened so steps can be taken to prevent it happening again. If I could have successfully run the "msizap.exe G! " utility it would have identified the orphans so I could delete just the uneeded ones but no such luck. Finances are probably going to preclude him buying a second hard drive at this point. I started reading "What files can I safely delete in Windows Explorer?" and I'm thru 3+ pages (of 9)so far it either wasn't relevent or I already knew it but I will read it all. CC Cleaner is free so I will download it and check it out. Tune up Utilities is a little too pricy(I'd buy a 2nd HD before that). I appreciate all the suggestions and will probably utilize most of them. Thanks,

Urge

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