luisam Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 Windows Installer Directory When applications are installed and updated on the Windows Operating System a hidden directory "c:\Windows\Installer" is used to store the installer (.msi) files and the patch (.msp) files. Generally these files are important as during updating, patching or uninstalling software it will use the .msi/.msp files. If you blanketly delete all the files in this folder, you will find yourself needing to rebuild windows. Over time as your computer is patched and patched again, these installer files become outdated and orphaned. They are no longer required, but they can take up many gigabytes of data, PatchCleaner PatchCleaner identifies these redundant/orphaned files and allows you to either: (Recommended) Move them to another location, prefaibly to another drive. If you want to play it safe, just move them to another location, and you can always copy them back. If you are SURE about what you are doing, you can delete them. How it works HomeDev has had many queries about how PatchCleaner works and if it can be trusted to do the right thing. Its pretty simple. The windows operating system holds a list of current installers and patches, that can be accessed via WMI calls, (Windows Management Instrumentation ). PatchCleaner obtains this list of the known msi/msp files and compares that against all the msi/msp files that are found in the "c:\Windows\Installer" directory. Anything that is in the folder but not on the windows provided list is considered an orphaned file and is tagged to be moved or deleted. HomeDev cannot warrant that PatchCleaner will not find a false positive and delete a required patch which is why we have added the filter feature to filter and recommend using the move function, that way you can always copy the patches back if required. Please see the Known Issues List at the bottom of the page CLI - Command Line Interface PatchCleaner implements a CLI, (Command Line Interface). The application can be run from the command line with the following switches: /d - This will execute with the delete action. /m - This will execute the move action with the default location as stored in your local app configuration. /m [FilePath] - This will execute the move action, where [FilePath] is the location you wish to move the files to. The process will write the output to the console window and also logs the messages to the windows event log. Malware After 200,000+ downloads, there is some feedback that a few users are having problems where PatchCleaner is being detected as Malware. The author reassures that there is no Malware contained within PatchCleaner. To stop PatchCleaner from being detected as malware he would require purchase of an SSL certificate and digitally signing the software but given this is 100% free software, it cannot justify the expense in doing this, so he does apologise for any extra clicks you may have to do to install PatchCleaner. The application has a 100% clean Softpedia rating. You can find PatchCleaner at http://www.homedev.com.au/free/patchcleaner Known Issues Adobe Reader patches are detected incorrectly as orphaned files. As of version 1.4, PatchCleaner now has an exclusion filter that allows you to filter out the Adobe Acrobat patch files so they can be excluded from the set of orphaned files. The exclusion filters are configurable Requirements Windows 7 / 8 or 10, x64 or x86 (not compatible with windows XP) .Net framework 4.5.2 Also, runs on Windows Server, Confirmed on Server 2008 R2 x64 and Server 2012 R2 64 PD: My personal experience as of after having used PatchCleaner, that it removed about 5+ Gb of more than 100 presumed orphaned files. Haven't appreciated any negative effects. My Windows 7 System drive has only 75 Gb and only remained 14 Gb free. Currently, after the cleanup process, I have about 25.5 Gb. I'm playing safe so saved the removed files in my Data drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
front360 Posted April 7, 2019 Share Posted April 7, 2019 I am considering whether or not I'm going to try this. Can anyone else recommend it, that had good luck using it, or is another program available that does the same thing, better, safer? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The AchieVer Posted April 8, 2019 Share Posted April 8, 2019 4 hours ago, front360 said: I am considering whether or not I'm going to try this. Can anyone else recommend it, that had good luck using it, I have been using it for quite some time now without any issues. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f33nix Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 I have also used this with no ill effects. It does also make a backup of the files "deleted" If you keep this in a safe place for some time, you should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
front360 Posted April 9, 2019 Share Posted April 9, 2019 Lets say I use this and I move the orphaned installer files to another drive. Then I run ccleaner and it tells me to clean out old references, to the "missing" installer files that I moved. Now, months later if I need to put one of the "installers" back in the correct location, to repair, patch, or uninstall(Not sure if these Uninstall also), will it work correctly if I deleted those old references earlier? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The AchieVer Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 4 hours ago, front360 said: will it work correctly if I deleted those old references earlier? Thanks in advance. Yes. You just need to put the installers in the correct location/path . Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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