|
|
|
|
|
Technology Bytes
by Francine Brokaw
Windows XP Hotfix Backup Remover Tool
If you have a windows operating system on your computer you should be upgrading periodically. Windows XP is now the standard OS for windows, and that is soon to be upgraded to yet another OS. Microsoft has stopped supporting their older version (Windows 98 and 98 XP) and Windows ME is pretty well off the radar as well. So let’s talk about XP for the time being.
Windows XP has several handy utilities and does much more than the older operating systems. However, no matter how good something is, it can always be improved. And when hackers and other security risks are discovered, Microsoft creates updates and hotfixes for them, by way of Windows Updates. You can manually update your windows through the website (update.microsoft.com) or you can have XP update automatically. If you update manually, you will have the choice which updates to install.
When you do update your computer, whether it’s manually or automatically, besides addressing the specific issues and concerns, backup files are added to your system. This is a good thing because if you discover a specific update is causing your system to crash or malfunction, you can uninstall that specific update. If, however, you find that your computer is running smoothly with the new updates, then you don’t really need the extra files. So, before you take the next steps, make sure you are happy with the way your computer is running. After an update, wait a week or two to see if there are any conflicts. If not, then proceed to the next step.
Removing the update files will not remove the updates from your computer. Removing the files is not the same as uninstalling the updates. However, if the updates are working fine, then you don’t need the additional files that are there mainly in the case you want to uninstall an update. If you notice, when you look at C:Windows, you will see a long list of blue files. These are all the updates your computer has made. If you’re like most people and have never gotten rid of these additional files, you will have many megabytes of useless files that are just taking up space on your hard drive. You can also access these files in the add/remove section. Once you have ascertained that your system is running fine and you feel comfortable with the way things are, you might want to delete these files. You can do that several ways.
First, you can simply just delete the files. This will free up space on your hard drive. But this will not delete all the “junk” the updates have placed on your system. There is a handy little utility that will remove the files from your system as well as from the add/remove section, and even delete the useless stuff from your registry. The “XP Remove Hotfix Backup” utility will remove the backup files and log files and leave your system running smoothly and without the excess files. This free version does the job easily. There is a version you can purchase if you want to be selective about which files you delete.
Remember to continually update your computer. And when you do, after you know everything is working fine, use this handy dandy little tool and you’ll be in good hands.
© 2006 Francine Brokaw
Let's Talk About It!
Issues newsgroup
Join us to talk about this article!
|
|
|
