Make sure this hotfix is installed: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42739. Manager wants me to discuss my performance directly with colleagues. What is the difference between “affirm” and “acknowledged”? How to progress a fantasy novel that is also slice of life? The Windows Update Cleanup is only available for Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows 7 counterpart) after installing this update, you use the the counterpart of Windows Vista which never gets this feature. But it becomes a much bigger issue when you end up with file corruptions. Let me make this question as clear as I can: Is there a tool that will allows for the safe purging of files from a Windows 2008 R2 Server's Windows\Installer directory? Unfortunately, this has the side effect of the folder contents growing in size each time any update is installed. How did games like Doom offer free trials? The second folder stores the Windows Installer files for installed applications, so that they are available if you (or the system) need to repair, modify or uninstall an application. I also don't see an option that refers to Installer. How do I differentiate between addressing two professors with the same last name? You can find out by clicking Help...About in the screen you posted a picture of or you can find it by running ver from a command prompt and cross referencing the build number. Locate cleanmgr.exe and move the file to %systemroot%\System32. Anyway, I know perfectly well what a superseded update is, and what disk cleanup does (and also how often it gets things wrong, but that's another story): what I explicitly advised against is. Each new update replaces ALL older GDR Updates. Thanks for contributing an answer to Server Fault! as far as file corruptions go, it's when it hits the .NET GAC that things truly start to get so unpleasant, you find yourself seriously contemplating writing the host off as a lost cause. (Added as a side note as it do the exact same thing than the tool), "To cleanup WinSxS you have to manually uninstall old updates"... an update never becomes "old", unless a KB article for a newer update, Cleaning up orphaned Windows Installer files. I found 68GB of msp and msi files at c:\windows\installer that cleanup.exe won't wipe, dating from 2013 onwards. We have Windows Server Enterprise SP2 (Copyright is 2007) with two folders (winsxs and Installer) that are 11GB and 5GB in size, respectively. There are literally 10,000 folder under winsxs that were created in years 2008 & 2009. A DIRECT answer to this question would be appreciated. I'm in charge of a Windows Server 2008 R2 (that I didn't install) that recently raised a disk capacity warning. Of course I could be wrong and I will happily to hear about it then. Why aren't fixed build platform 3D printers popular? We'll see. ... Is there a tool that will allows for the safe purging of files from a Windows 2008 R2 Server's Windows\Installer directory? Does spirit guardians hurt friendly creatures if they were not visible at cast time? To cleanup the Windows\Installer folder you can try the 3rd party tool PatchCleaner which allows to cleanup old unused MSI/MSP files. Here's a screenshot of the version of the OS we're using: Don't ever manually delete anything in those folders. They advice you not to remove items inside this folder. You can now launch the Disk cleanup tool by running Cleanmgr.exe from Command Prompt, or by clicking Start and typing Cleanmgr into the search bar. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351467%28v=WS.10%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#BKMK_COMPCLN, Making the most of your one-on-one with your manager or other leadership, Podcast 281: The story behind Stack Overflow in Russian. And I added the tags windows-server-2008-r2 and windows-server-2008 because I didn't see a tag for Windows Server Enterprise SP2. I know the cache grows out of control in short time, and there's other locations like \ProgramData can be even worse, but I would strongly advise not going down this route. to patching unless some how moving these files back to a different sector in the disk is an issue. Windows Server 2008 R2 - Purging Data from the Windows\Installer Folder. It's either Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or it's Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition. While deleting stuff in c\windows\installer is widely not recommended, there is a (hidden) sub folder in there called $patchcache or something similar, see if that is taking up space and delete all the content. So far I have no experience with this so I hope I am not back in this forum later warning everyone not to do this. What's the difference between Windows Server 2008, 2008 SP2 and 2008 R2? However have a look at this post: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/358b11de-927d-4bbf-b7ec-3a7f389d1c4c. To cleanup WinSxS you have to manually uninstall old updates. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. I clean up 2008R2 all the time with Disk Cleanup and it works great. Press J to jump to the feed. It isn't just Windows Server Enterprise Edition. Can you help me with it? Two tools that are the closest thing to mandatory to have access to when facing these kinds of issues are: These tools are only as robust as the system's integrity, and quite often involve running repairs on .msp's. Probably not wise to remove the data in this folder. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. That is safe to do, though it gets a bit tricky but quick google search tells you how to do it, you can use this toolhttps://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/install it and then run cleanup & optimizationjunk file cleanuptick everything under "system junk files". Locate cleanmgr.exe.mui and move the files to %systemroot%\System32\en-US. Is it a good idea to backup an entire Windows 2008 Server onto an USB stick? I've seen many articles on using Disk Cleanup with Windows Server 2008 R2 but unfortunately they don't apply to us. To cleanup the Windows\Installer folder you can try the 3rd party tool PatchCleaner which allows to cleanup old unused MSI/MSP files. So, the first step we need to do is to install Disk Cleanup utility which is part of a system feature called Desktop Experience. I believe the command is dism /online /cleanup-image (Don’t quote me on this). There are folders in there from 2008. As for your question, you can use the Windows Component Clean Tool - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd351467%28v=WS.10%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396#BKMK_COMPCLN. So look for the highest version number and uninstall the older updates. Speaking from experience, I'd stick with rj's first line and recommend you do not go down this route as it's a bit more complex than it looks. If you're going to ask a question the least you can do is figure out how to figure out what version of Windows you're running. OK, I get it. Just reading up on the following article from technet: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/joscon/2012/01/18/can-you-safely-delete-files-in-the-windirinstaller-directory/. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Not being able to uninstall updates is actually a pretty lightweight risk to take on board, and if that was the worst position you could find yourself in, then I'd say go for it. .NET libraries from known good machines, etc. Those files need to be there in order for your system to work as intended. I've had to work with servers in this position where quitting wasn't an option and it took over a day to recover piece by piece, reading endless msiexec.exe logs, putting manual registry entries back into place to resolve .msp missing prerequisites, copying The first one contains multiple versions of system files and DLLs, so that any program can find the exact version it requires, thus solving the long-dreaded "DLL hell" problem. A reddit dedicated to the profession of Computer System Administration. I'm in charge of a Windows Server 2008 R2 (that I didn't install) that recently raised a disk capacity warning. You could be just missing a hotfix for disk cleanup and the WinSXS option. Windows 2008: WinSXS directory growing uncontrollably, blocking server, Windows Server 2008 R2 “Missing Operating System” on boot. How to mount wire bead tyres without damaging them? Does freedom of speech mean freedom to mock everything? How Does 2FA Help Prevent Unauthorized Access in Phishing Attacks? Can you help me with it? An interesting problem with "decomposing" natural numbers. We know about OLD tools for Windows 2003 and we know about using dism to purge SP1; that is not what we are interested in.