I an using Win XP, and I noticed that in the Windows root directory there are 83 very odd-looking files, for example, NtUninstallKB953839. Googling this does not come up with anything that seems to explain it. All but one have “Uninstall” in them. I’ve uninstalled programs and files before without these showing up.
I’d like to delete all these, but am loath to do so until I can find out whether that would be harmful. I can always create a restore point first, but hate to crash the system by deleting them until I know.
Anybody know what the hell these are, and if they can safely be deleted?
They are the information needed to uninstall various Windows Updates. If you’re not having any problems that may be helped by uninstalling an update you can delete the folders.
If you delete these folders you’ll have a bunch of entries in your add/remove programs list that won’t work anymore. Fortunately if you try to use them Windows will just give you an error and offer to remove the item from the list. So if you’re willing to click through them all, you can clean the hell out of your add/remove programs list too.
That’s interesting. As long as I get an alternative, probably OK. I am keeping them in the Recycle Bin just because I figured somebody might have some more input, or i case something stopped working. Now that you’ve brought this up, I think I’ll just copy them to an external HDD for a while in case some other problem pops up.
I have uninstalled a couple of programs since deleting them, with no problem, but I use Revo Uninstaller, a wonderful alternative to Add/Remove Program, as it also gets rid of all files pertaining to the program and clears references to them out of the Registry.
BTW, these were not folders, and appeared before any of the folders on the list in Win Explorer.