Can I safely delete Windows update files to free space on my hard drive?
(Operating System: Windows XP) When you install updates from Windows Update, backup folders are created for the files that were replaced during the update. These are created so that you can easily uninstall a particular Hotfix, if it causes problems with your system — it may conflict with some software or hardware you have installed. Over time, these folders accumulate to occupy a significant amount of disk space — it could be about 250 – 500 MB or more. Can they be safely deleted with no problems, and if so, what is the recommended procedure? If your system is working well as updated, and it has been stable for a week or two, then you may not feel the need to keep the backup files. To view these files/folders, open Windows Explorer and look in your Windows folder (usually C:\Windows\). There will be a number of sub-folders with names in the form “$Ntupdate——$” and if you’re using the NTFS file system, the names will normally be blue because they’re compressed. Each folder has a
