patch cleaner / installer folder

Hi,
Never heard of it,
Use disk cleanup and cleanup system files inside it,
You can also use ccleaner although I never have.

louis14 said:

my winsxs subfolder is 12 Gbyte
my installer subfolder is 31 Gbyte
I can free my installer subfolder with 21Gbyte space by using patchcleaner.

C:\Windows\Installer?

Dont touch it, with whatever cleaner. Otherwise there will remain a big chance of a number of programs having a msi based installer not working properly.

Arc said:

C:\Windows\Installer?

Dont touch it, with whatever cleaner. Otherwise there will remain a big chance of a number of programs having a msi based installer not working properly.

Agree with the above expert advice!!

@Louis14: are you referring to Disk Cleanup Wizard addon lets users delete outdated Windows updates on Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, by any chance?

Personally I agree with ARC's advice. However I would point out that it's possible to reduce the size of the WINSXS folder using advanced disk cleanup if you have the update from microsoft installed that allows this. As it's designed by Microsoft to work properly it's the only thing I would use and even then only with a system image backup.

See: https://social.technet.microsoft.com...um=w7itproperf

As for the installer folder it shouldn't be touched except with Microsoft's own tool (Windows Installer Cleanup - msizap.exe) and then only if you're trying to fully uninstall a program. If you get it wrong it will leave you with programs that can't be removed or repaired. You will not be able to uninstall or repair any application that used one of those .msi files.

Two tutorials by Brink that I use. Other than these methods I recommend leaving winsxs alone.

Disk Cleanup - Open and Use

Disk Cleanup : Extended

Is their a winsxs full moon. Lots of people worried abut winsxs all of a sudden.

louis14 said:

my windows folder is 61 Gbyte

But is it safe to use patchcleaner?Won't I have problems with my installations?

Hi, I am the guy who wrote PatchCleaner. I first released back in June 2015 and after 12,000+ downloads I have not had a single person complain that it has broken their computer.

PatchCleaner comes with a move option, so to be safe you can plug in an External USB drive and use the move option to relocate the orphaned patches to your external drive. If you have problems you can just copy them back.

To date there is one known issue with PatchCleaner (which I encountered) which can cause problems with Adobe Reader's automatic update, please read more on the website. PatchCleaner.

To explain briefly how PatchCleaner works. Microsoft maintains a list of known required patches that you can obtain via a WMI call (Windows Management Instrumentation). I compare this list against what is actually in the installer folder. Anything in the folder that is not in the list is identified as an orphaned patch and can either be moved or deleted.

In saying all that, I do not warrant the product so use at your own risk.

I recommend the move action. 12,000 + users can't be wrong :)

Okay so this intrigued me. Having a recent system image backup available I ran Patch Cleaner. Here are the results.

One orphaned msi installer detected and moved. Sure enough - after inspection it turns out that it can be deleted. It's the installer for Opswat Gears - a program that is no longer installed. It's the only detection and doesn't free up much space.

Here I am again, Mr. Simple.

I use the Windows 7 built in disk cleaner or the extended.
Anything in WINSXS that it doesn't remove I leave alone.
Windows 7 knows what it does or does not want to save.

Any thing to do with WINSXS that is messed up could take days to repair.