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Has anyone successfully deleted the Windows Installer files successfully before? They are taking up 35.1% of my total hard drive space. Which ones are needed and which ones can be purged? In order to see this folder, I had to unhide system files by going to Windows Explorer > Organize (dropdown) > Folder and Search Options > view tab > uncheck ==> Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).

I used WinDirStat program to get these percentages. To see the image in full size, open it in a new tab.

I was told by someone that you should not delete these files, but then I found a utility--Windows Installer CleanUp Utility (very old version) that deleted these. But it doesn't run on Windows 7. If anyone has a later version that they found works, please let me know the path.

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I once deleted the contents of that folder to save disk space. It's not an issue as long as you don't plan to ever uninstall any application from your system ever again.

When you uninstall an application through the "Programs and Features" dialog, Windows will look for the proper uninstallation information in those installers. If they are missing, the application uninstall procedure will fail, leaving you unable to properly remove the application.

So I would highly advise against deleting those files.

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    just adding: uninstall or "repair" , some of the installers also can have a repair ability also, which can be handy when the program fails to work because of changes that happened to it.
    – Psycogeek
    Feb 6, 2012 at 17:57
  • Thanks for the info! Seems strange to me that uninstallers take up 1/3 of the space though. Feb 6, 2012 at 18:00
  • found a way to compress the folder. ehow.com/how_2073271_compress-folder-windows.html Feb 6, 2012 at 18:03
  • @Mr.MacGyver As Psycogeek noted, the packages can also be used to repair an installation. A point I missed and didn't mention in my answer. Feb 6, 2012 at 18:07
  • yah, i saw that. I think I'll leave them be and just compress them. Feb 6, 2012 at 18:21

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