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HotFix Uninstallers ($NtUninstall)

You may take notice that as a consequence of updates from Microsoft you have a growing collection of uninstall folders listed in C:\Windows and in your add/remove programs applet.

These folders look something like $NtUninstallKB867282$ or $NtUninstallKB873333$. The numbers change because each number designates a specific update. You can use these update numbers, by the way, to research a particular patch in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Some of these folders are larger than 800MB and it's common to have a long list of them - with each patch you get a folder so you can uninstall the patch if you need to. The same applies by the way to SP1 and SP2, you have uninstall folders for these as well.

Most people are acutely aware of odd-looking files and folders that seemingly appear from nowhere on their computer so such are often a point of concern and a wonder as to what to do about them if anything; and on systems for which hard drive space is a concern, they do take up significant space.

Keep in mind that these files are indeed necessary if one wishes to uninstall a particular patch or service pack. If one will never need to do that, then the folders will never be needed. But should they be deleted ?

One line of thought on these folders is to wait at least several weeks after a patch is obtained, so to be sure that your computer is running well. There is then little likelihood that you would later need to remove a particular patch.

Generally speaking our thoughts on deletions are:

1) Never delete anything you don't understand
2) Research the item on-line just to be sure you understand it
3) Consider the source of any advice you intend to follow and confirm advice at other sources
4) Don't assume someone else knows best, understand it yourself, before the deletion
5) Don't delete something in an attempt to learn if it is important to system function, seriously
6) Have a backup strategy in place including a plan for disaster recovery
7) After proceeding as above and concluding for yourself, delete, delete, delete, an uncluttered hard drive is a fast hard drive and a more stable computer

To view the files I'm talking about go to My Computer->Local Disk (C:)->Windows.

$MSI31Uninstall_KB893803$
$MSI31Uninstall_KB893803v2$
$NtUninstall_KB867282$
$NtUninstall_KB873333$
$NtUninstall_KB883939$
$NtUninstall_KB885250$
$NtUninstall_KB887472$
$NtUninstall_KB887742$
$NtUninstall_KB887797$
$NtUninstall_KB888113$
$NtUninstall_KB888302$
$NtUninstall_KB890046$
$NtUninstall_KB890047$
$NtUninstall_KB890859$
$NtUninstall_KB890923$
$NtUninstall_KB891781$
$NtUninstall_KB893066$
$NtUninstall_KB893086$
$NtUninstall_KB896358$
$NtUninstall_KB890859$
$NtUninstall_KB890923$
$NtUninstall_KB891781$
$NtUninstall_KB893066$
$NtUninstall_KB893086$
$NtUninstall_KB896358$
$NtUninstall_KB896422$
$NtUninstall_KB896424$
$NtUninstall_KB896428$
$NtUninstall_KB898458$
$NtUninstall_KB898461$
$NtUninstall_KB900930$
$NtUninstall_KB901214$
$NtUninstall_KB903235$
$NtUninstall_KB905915$
$NtUninstall_KB900930$
$NtUninstall_KB908519$
$NtUninstall_KB910437$
$NtUninstall_KB912919$
$NtUninstall_KB914440$
$NtUninstall_KB918118$
$NtUninstall_KB920213$
$NtUninstall_KB923694$
$NtUninstall_KB923723$
$NtUninstall_KB923980$
$NtUninstall_KB924270$
$NtUninstall_KB925398_WMP64$
$NtUninstall_KB925454$
$NtUninstall_KB925454_0$
$NtUninstall_KB926255$
$NtUninstall_KB926436$
$NtUninstall_KB927779$
$NtUninstall_KB927802$
$NtUninstall_KB928255$
$NtUninstall_KB928843$
$NtUninstall_KB931836$