Freeing up space .zip and .exe files

Freeing up space .zip and .exe files.

I've liberated a bunch of memory on my "C" drive today. Went though:

C\WINDOWS\DOWNLOADED PROGRAM FILES

C\MY DOWNLOAD FILES

..........eliminated of a bunch of .zip and .exe files.

So far, so good.

My thinking was like this: all the improtant functional stuff in is the C\PROGRAM FILES folder anyway.

However when I look into the PROGRAM FILE folders, there are many more .zip and .exe files, do I still need these?

I've made copies on to CD of everything I've deleted just in case I go too far and screw something up. I would certainly take the same precautions when dealing with "program files", all software is legal and in disk form already - don't want to reload and update anything I don't have to.

Question recap:
Do I need to retain the .zip and .exe files in the PROGRAM FILES folder?

NOTE: I'm not a computer guy by nature, pretty much a I.T. novice. I think I've freed up 25% of my C drive already, pretty happy with this progress and willing to leave well enough alone.

kach22i,

You should be able to safely remove the zip files. They should have not been in the Program FIles folder to begin with. Copy them to CD and then erase them.
There are some .exes that should remain in the Program Files directory but without knowing what you have installed it is a guess what to get rid of at this time.

Also check the temp directory for files which can be deleted. If you use I.E or another borwser delete the teporary files there as well as the offline contents. The cookies are something you may erase if you know which ones otherwise I would leave them alone for now.

I would look into a program that will do this for you. There are many out there and I have use a few. If you want I can tell you offline or in an email. I do not want to get in to a software discussion or thread here.

Also after you get rid of all the files you want defrag your drive!!

Jeff

Jeff Zaret said:

kach22i,

You should be able to safely remove the zip files. They should have not been in the Program FIles folder to begin with. Copy them to CD and then erase them.
There are some .exes that should remain in the Program Files directory but without knowing what you have installed it is a guess what to get rid of at this time.

Click to expand...

When I first started with this computer system five years ago (it's getting old now) I did not realize the benifits to creating a temporary folder from which zip files and .exe's could be launched into the PROGRAM FILES directory. Many zip files e-mailed to me for AutoCad were just put into the project folders and later removed.

What I found is that sometimes I messed up on placing the zip, and it just went "anywhere". I found some of these, made copies and got rid of them today.

To be on the safe side, I'm not going to touch anything in the PROGRAM FILES folder.

Most of the .zip folders I got rid of were for old project files (AutoCad) that have been saved to CD's already. Think of it as cleaning up old e-mails.

The major space savings I found were 100 large AutoCad files in which copies, backups and log files were put into a temporary folder when a guy I hired took it upon himself to reset AutoCad. His computer started to save copies in all the wrong places. I thought I had cleaned up the mess three years ago.

25%?!

how big is the hard drive? 5 year old PC... 20GB?

Yang1815 said:

25%?!

how big is the hard drive? 5 year old PC... 20GB?

Click to expand...

I think I was off in my guess - too optismistic. The last thing I did saved me only 2% and I thought it was a lot of luggage I got rid of.

I think I'm in good shape now:

70% free memory space on "C-Drive"

Over 90% free memory space on "D-Drive"

............and RAM at 58% free.

Over five years I've had the mother board changed out twice (failures long time ago) with a memory upgrade last time. This was one tier down from top of the line when I purchased it - I'm sure the entry stuff is more advanced now.

Is it time to upgrade or replace this computer?

C:
3.24 GB used
4.67 GB free
7.91 GB capacity

D:
1.22 GB used
19.3 GB free
20.5 GB capacity

AMD Athlon XP 1800 + 256.0 MB.................and RAM at 58% free.

Note; I'm not a "gamer" and never intend to be.

However with things like AD-Aware, Spybot (search and destroy), Trend Micro PC-Cillin able to run in the background; the world is a little different place than when I first purchased this computer.

I'm open to suggestions, however if it ain't broke don't fix it comes to mind.