Duplicate Files after SP3 (Service Pack 3) update.

[Mike]

I have a fresh install of XP SP2 (from laptop recovery CD's) and SP3 from the
file:
WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe
(NOT - xpsp3_5512.080413-2113_usa_x86fre_spcd.iso)

I use a file compare utility to scan C:\ and found over 2,500 duplicate
files mostly in:

C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles
C:\Windows\system32

What's the story here?
Can the folder C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles be deleted?

What's the difference between using these 2 methods? :
WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe
xpsp3_5512.080413-2113_usa_x86fre_spcd.iso
( I see there is the same KB936929 file inside the ISO !)

Michael.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Mike wrote:
> I have a fresh install of XP SP2 (from laptop recovery CD's) and
> SP3 from the file:
> WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe
> (NOT - xpsp3_5512.080413-2113_usa_x86fre_spcd.iso)
>
> I use a file compare utility to scan C:\ and found over 2,500
> duplicate files mostly in:
>
> C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles
> C:\Windows\system32
>
> What's the story here?
> Can the folder C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles be deleted?
>
> What's the difference between using these 2 methods? :
> WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe
> xpsp3_5512.080413-2113_usa_x86fre_spcd.iso
> ( I see there is the same KB936929 file inside the ISO !)

Please - in the future - do not multi-post. If you feel your posting needs
to be in more than one newsgroup, cross-post. Better for you, better for
everyone else.

Leave the files alone. Windows File Protection may need them later - it
helps protect your main system files from being changed.

The difference should be obvious. One is a CD, the other can be used
anywhere. -)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

 

[Mike]

Thanks Shenan.

Firstly I realize there is a 'Cross-post' function but I'm a newbie and
don't know the "use full USENET designation" syntax.
Can you advise how to?

About the updates, I know the 2 delivery methods are different, but is the
end result the same?
ie. is a residue of ~488MB/2,500+ files left behind?
I use 3rd party tools to backup my C:\ partition and I can't see the sense
if the files are available from an SP3 update ISO!


"Shenan Stanley" wrote:
> Please - in the future - do not multi-post. If you feel your posting needs
> to be in more than one newsgroup, cross-post. Better for you, better for
> everyone else.
>
> Leave the files alone. Windows File Protection may need them later - it
> helps protect your main system files from being changed.
>
> The difference should be obvious. One is a CD, the other can be used
> anywhere. -)

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Mike wrote:
> I have a fresh install of XP SP2 (from laptop recovery CD's) and
> SP3 from the file:
> WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe
> (NOT - xpsp3_5512.080413-2113_usa_x86fre_spcd.iso)
>
> I use a file compare utility to scan C:\ and found over 2,500
> duplicate files mostly in:
>
> C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles
> C:\Windows\system32
>
> What's the story here?
> Can the folder C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles be deleted?
>
> What's the difference between using these 2 methods? :
> WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe
> xpsp3_5512.080413-2113_usa_x86fre_spcd.iso
> ( I see there is the same KB936929 file inside the ISO !)

Shenan Stanley wrote:
> Please - in the future - do not multi-post. If you feel your posting
> needs
> to be in more than one newsgroup, cross-post. Better for you, better for
> everyone else.
>
> Leave the files alone. Windows File Protection may need them later - it
> helps protect your main system files from being changed.
>
> The difference should be obvious. One is a CD, the other can be used
> anywhere. -)

Mike wrote:
> Firstly I realize there is a 'Cross-post' function but I'm a newbie
> and don't know the "use full USENET designation" syntax.
> Can you advise how to?
>
> About the updates, I know the 2 delivery methods are different, but
> is the end result the same?
> ie. is a residue of ~488MB/2,500+ files left behind?
> I use 3rd party tools to backup my C:\ partition and I can't see
> the sense if the files are available from an SP3 update ISO!

First question - stop using the horrible web interface and choose some sort
of newsreader. Even Outlook Express has the capability to read/post to
these newsgroups and with that it is exremely easy to cross-post.

Outlook Express:
How to Configure Outlook Express for Internet News
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171164

How to Subscribe to Newsgroups in Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171190

A little more detail...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

With Outlook Express - it's easy to cross-post - think of it like sending an
email to multiple people. You do not normally send the email to one, retype
it and send to another, retype it and send to yet another. You just put all
the addresses in the to or cc or bcc fields at one time and send the message
once. Same difference here. To cross-post you put the full newsgroup names
in the "newsgroups" field - which is like the "to" field when sending
emails.

As for your second question...

If 500MB of space is bothering you - you may have chosen badly initially,
you need to learn to archive stuff off the main drive and/or you should
consider an upgrade of the hard disk drive. Do not take offense to that -
it is common - but at this point in time - people who have extremely small
(below 20GB) C:\ partitions are starting to get into trouble if they did not
change some things.

Applications and just the files people save themselves are getting larger
and more numerous everyday. Many do not consider that their "My Documents"
and "Desktop" folders really do (by default) reside on the C:\ drive - so
when they add to "My Music" and "My Pictures" - there goes the space for the
operating system and installed applications. Hard disk drives - in relative
terms - are inexpensive purchases. When you can actually purchase 1TB
(1000GB, 1000000MB, 1000000000KB, 1000000000000Byte) hard disk drives for
$170 or so - worrying over the 500MB (500000kb, 500000000Byte) of space
equates to worrying over about $0.085 of space when equated to U.S. dollar
amounts - or less than a single dime.

Having said that - you can - if you feel comfortable that you will not be
removing SP3 - remove the uninstall files that it leaves behind:
c:\windows\$NtServicePackUninstall$ <- many people will tell you to backup
these folders in case you need to go back later and uninstall the service
pack. You are going to need another disk to do this anyway and if you
follow the advice about archiving/etc - you will accomplish the same thing
but with your files.

If you want to free up as much space as possible on your C: drive without
uninstalling/installing applications onto other drives, without redirecting
your My Documents, Desktop, etc... Without copying your files to another
(possibly safer and longer lasting storage solution) medium...

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
you would be better off spending a little and putting in a drive that is
likely 3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning
yourself over such a small amount of space OR you seriously need
to consider what you really need on the system and what should be
archived.

Basic housekeeping 101... - in an actual home, if your storage area gets
full - you either have to decide what you really should have in the storage
area and what could go or you have to find a new place to store stuff
that will accommodate everything you need. You don't walk into a
warehouse of cars, look at the filing cabinet in the corner where
you keep all the records for the cars and decide that if you move it out of
the warehouse - you will have more room for cars. -)

As for the last question - yes the results are the same. The delivery
methods for SP3 are all different - but all of their results are the same.
Automatic Updates, Windows Update web page, CD or executable version - it
will install SP3 - replacing some files, installing some new files - and it
will put an "uninstall" folder in the "system" directory so that the
end-user can revert back to the pre-SP3 state if desired. The
"ServicePackFiles" directory exists in all of those methods and existed for
SP1, SP1a, SP2 as well...

If you don't want that directory and you want the peace of mind that you
won't need it - you will have to integrate SP3 and post-sp3 patches into an
installation CD/medium and install Windows XP cleanly. Otherwise - my
advice is that you leave the "ServicePackFiles" alone and look to free up
your space elsewhere.

However - let's say you are that concerned over space and you want Windows
XP with SP3 to take up as little space as possible - so you are willing to
do a clean installation...

How little space can a fully functional Windows XP installation really take
up - with a fully functional office suite, multiple Internet browsers, a
full (non-native) email client, antivirus, CD/DVD burning application, PDF
reader and creation applications, a decent image manipulation/creation
application, a good compression utility and generally all the common
Internet plugins...? About 4GB of space. And everything but Windows XP
Professional (in this case) is freeware.

I currently have a Virtual Box machine with the following installed:

- Windows XP Professional w/SP3
- 7-Zip 4.57
- Adobe Flash Player ActiveX
- Adobe Flash Player Plugin
- Adobe Shockwave Player 11
- Alt-Tab Task Switcher Powertoy for Windows XP
- AVG Free 8.0
- CmdHere Powertoy For Windows XP
- Foxit Reader
- ImgBurn
- Java(TM) 6 Update 6
- Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1
- Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
- Microsoft Compression Client Pack 1.0 for Windows XP
- Microsoft Silverlight
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
- Mozilla Firefox (2.0.0.14)
- Mozilla Thunderbird (2.0.0.12)
- OpenOffice.org 2.4
- Paint.NET v3.30
- PDFCreator
- QuickTime
- Real Alternative 1.8.0
- Shockwave Director 11.0
- Tweak UI
- Windows Internet Explorer 7
- Windows Media Player 11

It takes up a total of 3.95 GB (4,250,427,392 bytes) of space - including
everything you see.

Hopefully the above spiel will give you a better idea of what is going opn
and what can be done. It might even open up more questions for you - and
that's good. Ask for help if you need it... That's what these newsgroups
are for.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

 

[Mike]

Thanks Shenan.

I have seen your response but not had the chance to go through it yet.
It has a lot of meat to chew on so will take some time to digest!

I'll respond again soon.
----

"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

 

[hjacobson]

XP footprint on the new class of ultra low cost PCs

On Jun 15, 12:25 pm, "Shenan Stanley" <newshel...@gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
> If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
> being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
> you would be better off spending a little and putting in a drive that is
> likely 3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning
> yourself over such a small amount of space OR you seriously need
> to consider what you really need on the system and what should be
> archived.
<snip>
> How little space can a fully functional WindowsXPinstallation really take
> up - with a fully functional office suite, multiple Internet browsers, a
> full (non-native) email client, antivirus, CD/DVD burning application, PDF
> reader and creation applications, a decent image manipulation/creation
> application, a good compression utility and generally all the common
> Internet plugins...?  About 4GB of space.  And everything but WindowsXP
> Professional (in this case) is freeware.
<snip>
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
>      MS-MVP

With the advent of "netbooks" a.k.a. ultralow-cost PCs, Microsoft
committed to support XP on these machines through January 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jun08/06-03ComputexPR.mspx.
The first popular netbook, the ASUS eeePC's have small solid state
disk (SSD) drives 4 - 8 GB in size and an SD card slot

I am Technology Director of a public charter school in Massachusetts,
grades 7 - 12. It makes good sense to configure netbooks for use in
the academic environment. For that reason I am experimenting with an
ASUS eeePC 701. This eeePC has a 4 GB SSD and an 8 GB SDHC card
configured as the 2nd fixed disk drive.

I slimmed down, that is, removed extraneous functions from XP with SP3
using nlite http://www.nliteos.com/. The operating system and basic
applications occupy about 2.5 GB of the 4 GB SSD. This is not a fully
functional install, merely the necessary functions required in our
academic environment. Basic applications include: Adobe Reader, Adobe
Flash, Mozilla Thunderbird, Symantec Endpoint Protechtion. Acronis
True Image Echo Workstation is also installed for image backup.

The school uses Microsoft Office. We looked into OpenOffice and judged
its user interface, rendering, and storing of office documents
imperfect. I configured Office to install on the D: drive. The Office
application with only the functionality required by the school
occupies under 400 MB. The D:\MSOCache occupies about 700 MB.

The issue I'm now working on is redirecting or installing certain XP
folders to the D: drive.

To wit: The folder C:\WINDOWS\Installer. The folder is currently
almost 800 MB. I've tried moving the folder to D:\WINDOWS\Installer,
replacing the original folder with a symbolic link using Sysinternals
junction http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx.

Windows Update and Windows Installer 3.1 do not "play well" with the
symbolic link C:\WINDOWS\Installer --> D:\WINDOWS\Installer. The
symbolic link is removed, to be replaced with a folder which is then
populated with the update du jour or install du jour.

If/when this problem is resolved we will have the basic configuration
for introducing netbooks in our school.

Harry Jacobson

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Re: XP footprint on the new class of ultra low cost PCs

One (1) post will suffice. Thank you.

hjacobson wrote:
> On Jun 15, 12:25 pm, "Shenan Stanley" <newshel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> <snip>
>> If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
>> being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
>> you would be better off spending a little and putting in a drive that is
>> likely 3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning
>> yourself over such a small amount of space OR you seriously need
>> to consider what you really need on the system and what should be
>> archived.
> <snip>
>> How little space can a fully functional WindowsXPinstallation really take
>> up - with a fully functional office suite, multiple Internet browsers, a
>> full (non-native) email client, antivirus, CD/DVD burning application,
>> PDF
>> reader and creation applications, a decent image manipulation/creation
>> application, a good compression utility and generally all the common
>> Internet plugins...? About 4GB of space. And everything but WindowsXP
>> Professional (in this case) is freeware.
> <snip>
>>
>> --
>> Shenan Stanley
>> MS-MVP
>
> With the advent of "netbooks" a.k.a. ultralow-cost PCs, Microsoft
> committed to support XP on these machines through January 2010
> http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jun08/06-03ComputexPR.mspx.
> The first popular netbook, the ASUS eeePC's have small solid state
> disk (SSD) drives 4 - 8 GB in size and an SD card slot
>
> I am Technology Director of a public charter school in Massachusetts,
> grades 7 - 12. It makes good sense to configure netbooks for use in
> the academic environment. For that reason I am experimenting with an
> ASUS eeePC 701. This eeePC has a 4 GB SSD and an 8 GB SDHC card
> configured as the 2nd fixed disk drive.
>
> I slimmed down, that is, removed extraneous functions from XP with SP3
> using nlite http://www.nliteos.com/. The operating system and basic
> applications occupy about 2.5 GB of the 4 GB SSD. This is not a fully
> functional install, merely the necessary functions required in our
> academic environment. Basic applications include: Adobe Reader, Adobe
> Flash, Mozilla Thunderbird, Symantec Endpoint Protechtion. Acronis
> True Image Echo Workstation is also installed for image backup.
>
> The school uses Microsoft Office. We looked into OpenOffice and judged
> its user interface, rendering, and storing of office documents
> imperfect. I configured Office to install on the D: drive. The Office
> application with only the functionality required by the school
> occupies under 400 MB. The D:\MSOCache occupies about 700 MB.
>
> The issue I'm now working on is redirecting or installing certain XP
> folders to the D: drive.
>
> To wit: The folder C:\WINDOWS\Installer. The folder is currently
> almost 800 MB. I've tried moving the folder to D:\WINDOWS\Installer,
> replacing the original folder with a symbolic link using Sysinternals
> junction http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx.
>
> Windows Update and Windows Installer 3.1 do not "play well" with the
> symbolic link C:\WINDOWS\Installer --> D:\WINDOWS\Installer. The
> symbolic link is removed, to be replaced with a folder which is then
> populated with the update du jour or install du jour.
>
> If/when this problem is resolved we will have the basic configuration
> for introducing netbooks in our school.
>
> Harry Jacobson

 

[Cleaner007]

As for me I use Clone remover to remove duplicate files. Good program.