Windows 2000 Hotfix

[MarioB]

Hi all,

I have an 8 years old PC still running Windows 2000 (originally it came with Windows 98 but then I upgraded it to Windows 2000). Periodically we are advised by the system that there is an update available and then I install it - the so called Windows 2000 Hotfix - Kxxxxxx.

Now I've noticed, in Control Panel -> Add/remove programs, that I have about 20 of those Hotfix installed in my PC which, as you can imagine, take a lot of disc space; now I reach the point that I'm really running out of space - as I told before, it's an old PC with only a 6,4 GB disc!

So, my question is: to free space in the disc, can I remove all the installed Hotfix's and leave only the most recent one? Or no!, they all are necessary, so that the PC can run properly...

I'd appreciate your help/reply.

Thanks in advance,

Mário

[SLK001]

What a hotfix does, is archive the previous versions of the files that it changed. So hotfix after hotfix will give you, not duplicates, but near duplicates of the same file. The best way to get rid of these "dups" is to delete the archived directories. I believe that they are kept in WINNT\SYSTEM32\*. If your system is stable, there is no need to keep the archives. If worst comes to worst, you'll just have to reinstall Win2k again and start adding all the hotfixes but the one that caused the problem. I use Win2k and I have most of the hotfixes installed. I haven't noticed any stability issues.

[BogieV]

SLK, I wouldn't give such an advice to an unexperienced Windows user.

MarioB, is your PC desktop or notebook? You can ask some friend to add new disc and clone the old one to it. Even notebook discs are upgradable.
Or even better - go for a new value price PC - anything will be better than what you have now (that is so outdated).

[TBoneit]

Just make sure not to go to the system32 directory and start deleting things or you be reinstalling windows for sure. That is a vry important directory for Windows 2000 or XP.

And just to add each hotfix does not rplace the previos one they are cumulative and I wouldn't want to run without them if the computer ever goes on the internet.

[edsmith77]

Just a point. Are you or have you installed everything from SP4 or SP3 or ??
If you are not an SP4 level you can delete those then restart again once you have installed SP4. But if you are at SP4, then I would not delete anything. The better choice if you are running out of disk space is to get a new higher capacity disk. Just yesterday at Wal Mart, I saw 320 Gb (the WD brand) disks marked down to $79. Even SAMS club has them for $109.
To me this is a much less risky approach than deleting old hot fixes without understanding what that hot fix did to your system.

Ed

[SLK001]

I said that he could delete the archived "previous version" files that are stored in the directories in the SYSTEM32 directory. Once he deletes the archived files, the UNINSTALL executive file will "disappear" and will no longer appear in the "ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAM" listing.

Also, with your system running, you cannot delete a needed system file and damage your system (RE: Windows File Protection).

So, it IS safe to remove the archives. And nobody told him to start deleting any and everything in the SYSTEM32 directoy.

[BogieV]

Yes, but can you explain to a not experienced Win user what exactly are archives? And wich one exactly is safe to delete.
As you point out once deleting the archives you tweak the system and those hotfixes can't be uninstalled anymore. You save some space but for a 6.4GB disc is not enough I think.
Go and upgrade your disc or even the PC Mario, and do not mess with Windows on your own!
Give someone pro 20-30 bucks to back up your system before any upgrades or the move to new PC.

[DereX888]

You DON'T remove hotfixes from add/remove in control panel! NEVER! That equals uninstalling them
What would be the point to do so? Bring back the hole or bug that the hotfix patched up?

so

normally you never remove hotfixes. YOU WANT THEM. You remove them only if they cause more 'damage' than they fix (and thats quite often with shoddy Microsoft's coding, believe it or not, but thats another subject...).
Anyways.
Every msoft hotfix creates backup of files it replaced. They are in your \WINNT folder with appropiate names. (theyre hidden so you have to change viewing option to "show system and hidden files").

THOSE are the files you can safely delete, and you should delete them anyways, because no sane person will ever uninstall a hotfix (thus there is no need to keep copies of replaced buggy files).
You can also use TweakUI to hide or remove the hotfixes' entries from Add/Remove (specially if you delete their backups there would be no point in having them there since they will become "uninstallable"). But you NEVER remove hotfixes themselves That would be very silly.


edit:
I forgot. There is easy way to do so for any n00b and novice:
Crap Cleaner (renamed to more politically correct CCleaner).
It has option to clean up your hdd from these hotfix backup folders in \WINNT automatically AND MORE, and it is very easy to use (just select in its options whatever you want to cleanup, but read the warnings carefully - removing i.e. windows sizes and metrics will basically reset them to deafults).
However it will not remove hotfix' entry in the Add/Remove, so still you'd have to use TweakUI to remove them.
Crap Cleaner: www.ccleaner.com (IIRC)
TweakUI: search for TweakUI 2000 v.1.33 on microsoft's site


PS
SLK001 files in \system and \system32 repositories should NOT be touched. What will happen when you remove them, and say install some software or hardware later, and windows will need some files? If it won't find them there, it will ask for your Windows CD and you will be installing older/unpatched versions of files from the cd! You WANT the newer files from hotfixes there to stay there, so they will be used when they will be needed instead of copying again the old ones from your widows disc...


PS2
MarioB since your hdd is so small, you may want to make your own slipstreamed Windows 2000 disc and reinstall windows completely from that disc. "Slipstreaming" is a way to add all the hotfixes, service packs and such to the windows disc, thus it saves time (and space on hdd too) when youre installing Windows from such disc. My recently "updated" W2K CD has all of Service Pack 4, Update Rollup 1, and about 50 hotfixes already incorporated on the disc. When installed it takes ~1.4 GB on hdd (but only ~900 MB is Windows itself, since I add drivers, and some programs to my disc to be installed automatically too), and it takes ~20min to complete installation of completely up-to-date updated W2K on a computer, instead of installing 'original' W2K and hunting for all the updates etc...
Also (Im guessing here) that computer is probably very limited resource-wise, isn't it? If its something with an early PentiumII or less, with less than 256MB RAM, perhaps you should consider WIndows NT4.0 - your machine would literally FLY and you won't miss much from W2K (mainly directx - related stuff, that is games and such, but then what kind of games would you want to play on a slow old hog anyways).

[buttzilla]

These hotfixes really don't take up much space. Even if you uninstalled all them your not going to free up much space. I recomend you buy a new hard drive since they are pretty cheap these days.

[DereX888]

These hotfixes really don't take up much space. Even if you uninstalled all them your not going to free up much space. I recomend you buy a new hard drive since they are pretty cheap these days.

6.4Gb is more than enough to use it with Windows 2000 for almost anything typical (web, mail, chat, office etc) and he should have plenty of space left even if he installed full-blown MS Office.
He only need more space if he is going to 'play' with video editing or such (games etc) which I doubt considering its age (it took a week to encode 90min video to MPEG-2 (with only a SVCD-specs) on a 233MHz old junk...) .
What do we use our humongus new half-terabyte hard drives for?
Storage (video and audio files in 99.99%) foremost, if not only.
If he don't need to store videos on this PC he has no need for any larger hdd.

[Ruut]

My second computer is also very small: PII with 256 MB and a 4 GB disk.
What would REALLY help in a situation like this is:
Get yourself a second HD, connect it as 'master' to the secondary ID-channel.
Move the 'Virtual Memory' (pagefile) to (the root of) it.
Move the 'Temporary Internet Files' folder to it (and reduce the size to the minmum: 1 MB)
Move your 'My documents' folder to it as well.

And as for 'hot fixes': FORGET THEM!! As pointed out earlier: they sometimes introduce more problems than they solve, because they're patched together in a rush. Instead get yourself a (wired) router ($ 30.- or so) even if you have only one computer. The router has a built-in firewall: if you secure it with a really strong password no one will ever be able to access your system. Of course you do need a high quality Virus Scanner (Mcafee?). In addition I also have a Trojan remover, but it has never cought anything significant.

I have used a setup like this for many years without any problem.
You will be amazed by the performance of a system like this!!

[bevills1]

Has Disk Cleanup been run lately? That can eliminate files not needed such as temporary internet files, recycle bin, etc. and can often free up quite a few megs. If you decide to add a drive, check http://bensbargains.net/ where you'll frequently find 160 GB or larger drives for $40 or less after rebate from various vendors.

[SLK001]

SLK001 files in \system and \system32 repositories should NOT be touched. What will happen when you remove them, and say install some software or hardware later, and windows will need some files? If it won't find them there, it will ask for your Windows CD and you will be installing older/unpatched versions of files from the cd! You WANT the newer files from hotfixes there to stay there, so they will be used when they will be needed instead of copying again the old ones from your widows disc...

Yeah, my bad... I thought that the archives were kept there. I see from your screen plot that they are under the WINNT directory (I delete them about a week after they are installed, so I had no place to verify their locations).

Also, I don't see where he considers himself a n00b. He's definitely not a power user, but also maybe not a n00b.

[DereX888]

Also, I don't see where he considers himself a n00b. He's definitely not a power user, but also maybe not a n00b.

Perhaps he don't, but managing space on hdd is not any rocket science either.
And this thread and messages will stay here long after we finish discussing it (hopefully) so maybe it will help someone else (a n00b?) too.