C:/Windows?!?!

[michael2023]

This folder (when i set to view hidden files) is full of files like this.

$NtUninstallKB9*****$
Where the stars are numbers and letters.

1.What is the purpose of these files?
2.Why do they all total 4gigs.
3.Are some safe to delete or should none be deleted

[jlreich]

Those are windows update files. I am going to guess they are limited to 4GB in case they are installed in a system that has FAT32 as it's files system. FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation.

Leave them be.

[michael2023]

This is a Windows XP Pro NTFS HDD.

[jlreich]

Yes I can tell from the type of files you spoke of.

XP can be and is sometimes installed using FAT32. Hence my guess that the reason all the files are 4GB is because of the FAT32 limitation, just in case. :)

Often it is on FAT32 because of an in place upgrade from win98. Other times it is done purposely in order to make data recovery easier and compatibility with older OS's. Though data recovery is not much of an issue these days as there are more and more programs that can access NTFS without windows running. This is a problem with many DOS or DOS like programs.

[Paul Komski]

They are the uninstallers for Windows Updates. If you dont want the updates you can remove them from Add/Remove Programs. If you are stuck for space you can delete them but wont thereafter be able to uninstall the updates and may screw up the Windows Updating particularly if you do it automatically.

I cannot believe they are all 4GB files. Where are you getting that information from? The program ExplorerXP (http://www.explorerxp.com/) is good at determining/discriminating what is what and what size.