Windows Updates

[Tinman57]

  Here's an interesting question that one of you eggheads may know:  What happens to the Windows update patches when they're superseded?  Right now I have 402 Windows update patches in my Windows folder on my XP machine!

[Ath]

They stay there so you can uninstall them (yeah, right ), or until you delete them manually. My first line of defense in recovering harddisk space on a Windows XP system

[x16wda]

My first line of defense in recovering harddisk space on a Windows XP system

Yeah, Bleachbit does a good job of rooting out all those folders and all the other cruft that accumulates over time.  I've recovered gigabytes on the first run.

[pilgrim]

I sorted out cleaning software a long time ago and rarely look at anything new, but a short time ago I read a review of KCleaner.
As it is portable and also has an 'Analyse' mode when run manually I gave it a try.
To my surprise it turned up quite a few files on both XP and 7, the majority of which were MS Update related.
Having looked through the list to make sure there was nothing that was needed I let it run and have had no problems.

I would not recommend running it automatically, at least until you have sorted out what it finds.
Nor do I think it is something worth running frequently, CCleaner plus CCEnhancer find most of the regular stuff.
But I definitely think it is worth running after installing MS Updates each month.

[Tinman57]

I sorted out cleaning software a long time ago and rarely look at anything new, but a short time ago I read a review of KCleaner.
As it is portable and also has an 'Analyse' mode when run manually I gave it a try.
To my surprise it turned up quite a few files on both XP and 7, the majority of which were MS Update related.
Having looked through the list to make sure there was nothing that was needed I let it run and have had no problems.

I would not recommend running it automatically, at least until you have sorted out what it finds.
Nor do I think it is something worth running frequently, CCleaner plus CCEnhancer find most of the regular stuff.
But I definitely think it is worth running after installing MS Updates each month.

  But that begs the question, how do you know what's superseded and safe to delete?

[Tinman57]

My first line of defense in recovering harddisk space on a Windows XP system

Yeah, Bleachbit does a good job of rooting out all those folders and all the other cruft that accumulates over time.  I've recovered gigabytes on the first run.

  I went to that website and looked at the features and didn't see anything about removing superseded Windows Update files and folders.

[PhilB66]

My first line of defense in recovering harddisk space on a Windows XP system

Yeah, Bleachbit does a good job of rooting out all those folders and all the other cruft that accumulates over time.  I've recovered gigabytes on the first run.

  I went to that website and looked at the features and didn't see anything about removing superseded Windows Update files and folders.

It's there.

Update uninstallers: Delete uninstallers for Microsoft updates including hotfixes, service packs, and Internet Explorer updates

[Tinman57]

My first line of defense in recovering harddisk space on a Windows XP system

Yeah, Bleachbit does a good job of rooting out all those folders and all the other cruft that accumulates over time.  I've recovered gigabytes on the first run.

  I went to that website and looked at the features and didn't see anything about removing superseded Windows Update files and folders.

It's there.

Update uninstallers: Delete uninstallers for Microsoft updates including hotfixes, service packs, and Internet Explorer updates

  I looked all over that site and still didn't see that phrase.  I'll download it and read the docs....

[pilgrim]

But that begs the question, how do you know what's superseded and safe to delete?

If it was still needed it wouldn't be picked up.

[Ath]

If you have ever needed to uninstall a windows update, then don't delete the last month of updates, so you can still revert them if needed. In all other cases just remove all of it. In the early days of windows updates the updates where sometimes flawed, so an uninstall was needed quite regularly, but I havent needed to uninstall any updates (from XP to W7) for many years. Unfortunately since Vista, the stored updates/uninstallers can't be (safely) deleted, but they do seem to use less diskspace.

[Tinman57]

  I ran BeachBit, and from what I could tell it wanted to remove ALL of the updates/patches.  I just want to delete the superseded updates.  I'll see what KCleaner has to offer.

  On another note, BeachBit has a sneaky spyware installer.  The first install screen with what looks like the EULA is actually trying to get your permission to install spyware.  If you select 'Decline' as I did, you'll be taken to the actual EULA for BeachBit.  This is the reason why I ALWAYS read everything presented on an install... 

[Stoic Joker]

In XP all the update files are in hidden folders in the Windows directory. The only one that should never be deleted is the update history folder named $hfg_ something (I forget the exact name but it always at or near the top of the list). The updates will all be named $KBxxxxxx so they stay grouped together. In going with Ath's don't delete the updates from the last month or so recommendation I'd say to just use the standard behavior of Windows and delete the blue ones...as by default files that haven't been accessed in (IIRC) 90 days are compressed by NTFS and will have their file names listed in blue.

In a pinch if something went wrong later system restore can still be used to roll back to a pre-update state as in does not rely on these files...they are only used for manual uninstall of specific patches.

[Tinman57]

In XP all the update files are in hidden folders in the Windows directory. The only one that should never be deleted is the update history folder named $hfg_ something (I forget the exact name but it always at or near the top of the list). The updates will all be named $KBxxxxxx so they stay grouped together. In going with Ath's don't delete the updates from the last month or so recommendation I'd say to just use the standard behavior of Windows and delete the blue ones...as by default files that haven't been accessed in (IIRC) 90 days are compressed by NTFS and will have their file names listed in blue.

In a pinch if something went wrong later system restore can still be used to roll back to a pre-update state as in does not rely on these files...they are only used for manual uninstall of specific patches.

  Unless you have them un-hidden like I do.  But as far as showing up in blue, I've never seen this in XP using Windows Explorer, all the icons are yellow by default.

[x16wda]

I ran BeachBit, and from what I could tell it wanted to remove ALL of the updates/patches.  I just want to delete the superseded updates.  I'll see what KCleaner has to offer.

  On another note, BeachBit has a sneaky spyware installer.  The first install screen with what looks like the EULA is actually trying to get your permission to install spyware.  If you select 'Decline' as I did, you'll be taken to the actual EULA for BeachBit.  This is the reason why I ALWAYS read everything presented on an install...

On the second item (the "sneaky spyware installer")  - where did you get your download from?  I just downloaded the 0.9.5 installer from Sourceforge (again) and installed on my 6 month old Win 8 box.  The Sourceforge download does not contain anything other than Bleachbit - you pick a language and the next box is the Gnu General Public License.  You didn't pull it down from CNet did you?  Sounds like someone repackaged it with OpenCandy in front.

(FWIW, it cleaned out 2.47gb of cruft on my box, and I did not select all of the options...)

On the first item, superceded updates may be sitting there in your SoftwareDistribution folder (have not checked) but they wouldn't be downloaded in the first place, would they?  Unless you tell your PC to download but not install updates, then you don't install updates...  If they're superceded then they won't get installed so there is no uninstall folder to clean out.  But one of the things Bleachbit does it empty out SoftwareDistribution which will get re-filled as needed next time you check for updates.

[pilgrim]

But one of the things Bleachbit does it empty out SoftwareDistribution which will get re-filled as needed next time you check for updates.

The important part being 'as needed'.

KCleaner does the same thing.

[Stoic Joker]

But as far as showing up in blue, I've never seen this in XP using Windows Explorer, all the icons are yellow by default.

No no, not the icons...the text label/file name will be in blue for compressed files and green for encrypted files. This has been a default behavior since Win2k. Folder Options->View Tab->Advanced Settings: Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.

[Tinman57]

On the second item (the "sneaky spyware installer")  - where did you get your download from?  I just downloaded the 0.9.5 installer from Sourceforge (again) and installed on my 6 month old Win 8 box.  The Sourceforge download does not contain anything other than Bleachbit - you pick a language and the next box is the Gnu General Public License.  You didn't pull it down from CNet did you?  Sounds like someone repackaged it with OpenCandy in front.

(FWIW, it cleaned out 2.47gb of cruft on my box, and I did not select all of the options...)

On the first item, superceded updates may be sitting there in your SoftwareDistribution folder (have not checked) but they wouldn't be downloaded in the first place, would they?  Unless you tell your PC to download but not install updates, then you don't install updates...  If they're superceded then they won't get installed so there is no uninstall folder to clean out.  But one of the things Bleachbit does it empty out SoftwareDistribution which will get re-filled as needed next time you check for updates.

I used a link that was supposed to download the lite version that wasn't supposed to have the spyware included.  Yeah, they told a fib on that one.....

  The updates are downloaded to your hard drive.  The superseded ones never get removed from your Windows folder.  But I think I found a simple solution, I zipped the all up and copied it to my external USB drive if I should ever need to uninstall one....