Disk Clean-up is reporting that “per user queued windows error report” is taking up 5.7 GB of space on my primary boot/app drive. It’s a 120 GB SSD, so space is at a premium. I initially turned to Google but got a wide range of conflicting reports (it’s safe to delete/deleting it crashed my system). Further complicating things a lot of the results discussed Windows Vista (I’m on a Win 7 machine), and a lot of results had no date.
When it comes to general technical questions—particularly when there seems to be a conflict—I trust the Dope.
I’d clearly back up everything and set a restore point, but that’s not a panacea and I’d rather not have to fix if I can avoid breaking something. So, is it safe to check the box in Disk Clean-up and have it delete the report?
You’re talking about the built-in disk cleanup utility that ships with Windows, right? I don’t get that particular option, but that’s probably because I’ve disabled error reporting entirely. That feature bugs the hell out of me and, as you point out, it chews up disk space for little to no benefit (IMHO).
Assuming that’s what we’re talking about, then yes – any option the cleanup utility gives you is going to be safe to use. At least inasmuch as it won’t harm the OS or any installed applications. But obviously if you delete, say, the service pack backup files, you’ll no longer be able to uninstall said service packs/patches. I can’t imagine why an end user would ever want archived error reporting data after the fact, so I vote for nuking them.
Edit:
And for that matter, I see no value in holding on to service pack backup files for any length of time. Maybe for a week so after each “patch Tuesday” just in case one of them causes unforeseen problems But once you’ve been running a patch long enough to verify that it isn’t going to give you trouble, there’s usually not ever any good reason to uninstall it.