Deleting Programs On My Computer

[BillStrangeOgre]

I need to free up space on my hard drive but i don't know which programs i can safely delete. I don't know what they are or what they do!

I have:-

ATI Control Panel 13.91 MB (What the hel_l is that?)

Compatibility Pack For The 2007 Office System 129 MB (Sounds important but i have Microsoft Office Enterprise installed and that's already 623 MB!)

COWON Media Center-Jet Audio Plus VX 54 MB (Not sure i'm using this)

Java™ 6 Updates 3,4,5 & 20 Total 511 MB (Do i need all that on my computer?)

J2SE Runtime Enviroment 5.0 Update 10 120 MB (This is another Java application i know but another 120 MB??)

Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable x86 9.0. 30729.17 10 MB (What the *&%# is that?)

OmniPage SE 45 MB (Again, what the hel_l is that?)

ProCoder 3 12 MB (What does that do?)

Synaptics Pointing Device Driver 25 MB (Do really need this?)

There's more of course but these are the ones i have questions about.

Cheers for any help

Edited July 20, 2010 by BillStrangeOgre

[KunMatt]

None of those programs are really large enough to free up much space.

First download and run ccleaner

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

This will delete all of your internet and temporary files, empty your recycle bin etc. Uncheck some of the internet options if you use your browser to remember your website passwords and want to keep them.

Then you can try PC Decrapifier,

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

this is used to delete all the unnecessary bloatware that come pre-installed on your laptop. Google each program to find out what you want to keep.

Yes, you need the ATi (graphics) and the Synaptic (mouse) programs. Do you have a partitioned D: drive you can copy files to or expand your C: drive to?

[KunMatt]

Also, the biggest space hogs are game installations and video files, so move or delete this type of file first.

[lopburi3]

If unable to find enough to remove there is an option to compress that these days does not cause too much of a lose in speed. If all else fine for you perhaps a new HD might be worthwhile (they do not cost much these days) and most sellers would be able to do the work for you at little cost. But as said above if you have large folders of photos/music/movies or such they should be moved first and an external drive makes a good option for that.

[Prasert]

In the \windows directory, delete $hf_mig$ and all directories starting with $NtUninstallKB

These are un-install files for all windows updates, which you won't need anymore.

[Pib]

You must have a small hard drive. 40GB maybe. What about deleting some of your less important data files/files you have created. As mentioned already, if you have video files or evey high resolution graphics/picture files, these type of files can eat of a lot of drive space. May be time for a larger hard drive...maybe at least 100GB. Now if you already got a 100GB or larger drive, then you probably got a lot of large data files.

[welo]

Good advise so far.

Just for completeness

> ATI Control Panel 13.91 MB (What the hel_l is that?)

additional configuration options for your video card, usually come with the ATI drivers. My recommendation: keep it

> Compatibility Pack For The 2007 Office System 129 MB (Sounds important but i have Microsoft Office Enterprise installed and that's already 623 MB!)

"Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the Open XML file formats which were introduced to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint beginning with Office 2007." You probably have Office 2003 installed. My recommendation: keep it

> Java™ 6 Updates 3,4,5 & 20 Total 511 MB (Do i need all that on my computer?)

> J2SE Runtime Enviroment 5.0 Update 10 120 MB (This is another Java application i know but another 120 MB??)

You can remove older updates, just keep the latest version (Java 6 Update 20).

> Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable x86 9.0. 30729.17 10 MB (What the *&%# is that?)

This is a software library required by many programs. My recommendation: keep it

> Synaptics Pointing Device Driver 25 MB (Do really need this?)

The drivers for your Touchpad. They offer additional features, some of it very useful, e.g. 'Disable Touchpad while Typing'. My recommendation: keep it

For all other applications: google the name or search for it on download.com. If you don't use those applications, get rid of them.

welo

Edited July 20, 2010 by welo

[astral]

Only delete programmes through the Control Panel, not directly from the Programs folder.

CP will show you the size as well.

Regular use of Ccleaner is a good practice to control space,

also make sure you have emptied the Recycle Bin

[BillStrangeOgre]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I have a 36 GB hard drive so probably need to invest in more space. Meantime I will follow all the advice to free up space.

Cheers

Edited July 20, 2010 by BillStrangeOgre

[welo]

Ouch, and I complained about my 140 GB drive just recently

320GB laptop drives start at about 1400 THB, however, this is with SATA 'connector', you might still have a laptop with PATA (aka 'IDE') connector - I see a 160 GB for 1600 THB listed at JIB. Get a cheap external enclosure for your old drive (500 THB), makes the transition more smooth and you can use for backup later!

And of course somebody has to swap it (5 minutes) and 'move' or reinstall your system and data (hours..).

[Pib]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I have a 36 GB hard drive so probably need to invest in more space. Meantime I will follow all the advice to free up space.

Cheers

Yeap, hard drives around 40 GB in size can fill up very quickly now days just with basic programs/software that get more fat on every release. Throw is a couple GB's of your data files and the drive be full!!!

[Supernova]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I have a 36 GB hard drive so probably need to invest in more space. Meantime I will follow all the advice to free up space.

Cheers

And I thought I was one of the privileged few running on older hardware. Speaking of which, I've got 2x20GB ide laying around here somewhere...

[BillStrangeOgre]

Ouch, and I complained about my 140 GB drive just recently

320GB laptop drives start at about 1400 THB, however, this is with SATA 'connector', you might still have a laptop with PATA (aka 'IDE') connector - I see a 160 GB for 1600 THB listed at JIB. Get a cheap external enclosure for your old drive (500 THB), makes the transition more smooth and you can use for backup later!

And of course somebody has to swap it (5 minutes) and 'move' or reinstall your system and data (hours..).

If i knew what SATA and PATA connectors were and what JIB and an external enclosure were i might even be able to solve the problem!

I've got a Compaq Presario x1000 can anyone recomend a laptop drive?

[welo]

SATA / PATA

two different types of connector for hard-disks, PATA (sometimes also called 'IDE') being the older standard. Your laptop model requires a harddrive with the 'old' connector type which is now more rare and therefore more expensive.

external enclosure

long answer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_enclosure, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_hard_disk

short answer: something like this; it will allow you to connect your old hard drive to your laptop via usb, and use it for data storage, backup, etc.

JIB

JIB - one of the many online stores in Thailand, check this list

If you actually plan to purchase a hard drive larger than 137 GB, there might be an issue with your model, see this discussion or google '48bit LBA'. Chances are good that everything is fine, but you should probably bring your laptop along when doing the purchase and just check at the shop if your laptop is OK with a bigger drive.

The new harddrive might actually give your system a nice performance boost! If you find some cheap RAM for a memory upgrade you will probably not recognize your laptop afterwards It will still be an old system, but surely a lot faster than now! I guess your system has 512MB RAM now? You can download this tool to check your current memory configuration and if there is a free slot to easily upgrade the memory.

welo

[welo]

And I thought I was one of the privileged few running on older hardware. Speaking of which, I've got 2x20GB ide laying around here somewhere...

I suggest building them into a RAID-0 NAS box... awesome!