HUGE %WINDIR%\Installer folder

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  1. Posts : 2,068
    Windows 10 Pro
       #11

    I highly recommend PatchCleaner. I have been using it for quite a while to clean up that directory. My wife's laptop is about 3 years old and has a 128GB SSD in it. It was down to 10GB free. Ran TreeSizeFree and found that her Windows directory was about 66GB.

    Fired up Patch cleaner and found that the Windows installer directory was nearly 45GB. Ran patchcleaner, found 36GB worth of orphaned files. I always just hit delete. I used to move the files, but after never having experienced a need to move it back, I quit doing that and simply hit delete now.

    PATCHCLEANER is great.
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 182
    Windows 10 Pro-21H-19043.985
       #12

    "Post #7- Opted for the safer relocation to the 1 TB external HDD attached to her PC. Now moving ."
    How did you get the input for the external drive?
    I did this routine but I downloaded a portable app version. The output was firmly into my drive E where I have the MyDocs linked. I tried to use another drive by browsing but it wouldn't pop into the output.
    There was 6Gb of stuff from past years.
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 4,224
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #13

    Maybe that's a difference between the regular (installed) and portable versions? I use only the installed version and it lets me browse the file system (and external volumes) just fine on all of my (8) PCs.
    HTH,
    --Ed--
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 1,524
    Win10 Pro
       #14

    pparks1 said:
    I highly recommend PatchCleaner. I have been using it for quite a while to clean up that directory. My wife's laptop is about 3 years old and has a 128GB SSD in it. It was down to 10GB free. Ran TreeSizeFree and found that her Windows directory was about 66GB.

    Fired up Patch cleaner and found that the Windows installer directory was nearly 45GB. Ran patchcleaner, found 36GB worth of orphaned files. I always just hit delete. I used to move the files, but after never having experienced a need to move it back, I quit doing that and simply hit delete now.

    PATCHCLEANER is great.
    A note of caution on Patch Cleaner, I used it for the first time a few days ago and fortunately I selected the option to move files in lieu of deleting (I have a HDD just for temporary storage) and two days later I needed to do repair of a program but the MSI was missing. It turned out to be one of the ones that Patch Cleaner marked as not needed. So glad I didn't delete it.
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 4,224
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #15

    Patch Cleaner has not kept up with the times: it hasn't been updated since November 18, 2016. I no longer recommend it, because -- as you've observed yourself -- it is no longer safe to use with more modern versions of Windows 10. These days I rely on DISM /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup to handle out-dated packages from the WinSxS directory. I'm not aware of anything new that can stand in all the way for what Patch Cleaner used to do, but this comes as close as it's safe to get nowadays.
    HTH,
    --Ed--
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       #16

    Ed, what about a Repair Install. I just did this last night on my 20H2 19042.610 system and it worked great once I did the registry changes and my Installer is 3.3GB.
    Lost only a few registry hacks, everything else was preserved perfectly.
      My Computers


 

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