Needless Updates

[Guernsey]

My computer is not that big and I still need to wait awhile before I can afford a new hard drive. How can stop these updates, they already took up a portion of my disk space as it is. Do I even need any updates?

[spawnofthejudge]

Originally Posted by Guernsey

My computer is not that big and I still need to wait awhile before I can afford a new hard drive. How can stop these updates, they already took up a portion of my disk space as it is. Do I even need any updates?

Are you talking about system/OS updates like Windows Update?

[Random32]

Assuming the Windows security updates. It is highly recommended to NOT turn off the Windows updates. Doing so is a major security risk.

if you wish to do so anyways

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306525
scroll down and click "Fix it for me" for turn automatic updates off

it should do everything for you, the page also has instructions for doing it manually right below the MS FixIt stuff.

[SeijiSensei]

I can't imagine software updates would eat that much of your hard drive. Usually you're just replacing a library with its updated version. The replacement might be a bit larger since it includes the patches, but we're still talking about relatively small objects. I have a copy of Win7 Home Premium that I run in a virtual machine on Linux. The entire image is about six gigabytes. (For comparison purposes, a default installation of Kubuntu Linux runs a bit over four gigabytes.)

Most of the things that take up space are user files, particularly media.

Please don't stop updating your computer. Otherwise you leave yourself open to being exploited and turned into yet another source of spams or denial-of-service attacks.

[chikorita157]

Never ever disable automatic updates as it poses a security risk. Instead, use a system cleaner such as CCleaner to remove temporary files that programs leave behind. Also, if you don't use System Restore, you can disable this to reclaim disk space.

[hoshikuzu]

You can choose to download specific updates, but never turn auto update off.

[KuroSaru]

@Guernsey

-1 : Id strongly suggest you get windirstat. find out what is really using up all your space.
-2 : Do not turn off auto-updates, yes use windows cleanup option to remove all unwanted data, clean your temp folder(s), and clean up installers for updates. but as has been said, disabling updates is a bad idea.
-3 : If its a matter of more space, priorities, if you got 20 games installed, but only play 4 uninstall the others.

hopfully windirstat will help alot though.

[Dist]

Originally Posted by hoshikuzu

You can choose to download specific updates, but never turn auto update off.

How would you choose what to download if you have auto update enabled? As name implies, it updates automatically.

Originally Posted by Random32

Assuming the Windows security updates. It is highly recommended to NOT turn off the Windows updates. Doing so is a major security risk.

if you wish to do so anyways

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306525
scroll down and click "Fix it for me" for turn automatic updates off

it should do everything for you, the page also has instructions for doing it manually right below the MS FixIt stuff.

Well not really. You all seem to miss the fact that when an update is released to fix a hole in the security, the hole was always there until you updated it and you haven't gotten infected so far so why now?

The updates hardly take space though, probably few kilobytes so the argument that you're running out of space hardly seems believable.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Dist

How would you choose what to download if you have auto update enabled? As name implies, it updates automatically.

On Windows, most updates occur during the second Tuesday of the month and, by default, Automatic Updates are set to install updates at 3:00 in the morning every day. So you can actually bypass AU almost entirely by manually checking for updates before the specified time.

Well not really. You all seem to miss the fact that when an update is released to fix a hole in the security, the hole was always there until you updated it and you haven't gotten infected so far so why now?

And you seem to miss the fact that just because you haven't been infected doesn't mean you won't be. For home users, there is just little sense in not updating ASAP once a security update is released.

[Random32]

Originally Posted by Dist

How would you choose what to download if you have auto update enabled? As name implies, it updates automatically.



Well not really. You all seem to miss the fact that when an update is released to fix a hole in the security, the hole was always there until you updated it and you haven't gotten infected so far so why now?

The updates hardly take space though, probably few kilobytes so the argument that you're running out of space hardly seems believable.

1. You can have Windows auto update either truly auto update, auto download and let you choose when to update, or alert when updates are available for your updating pleasure.

2. Just because you haven't been infected before doesn't mean you are safe after the update comes out if you don't update. Also, maybe the bug wasn't known by anyone before, and when an update comes out, at least someone knows about it.

3. If I wasn't clear in my first post due to giving directions of how to. Do Not Turn Off Auto Update.
It shouldn't be eating into your hard drive space as you are suggesting anyways. I would recommend WinDirStat to find out the real eater of drive space.

[Guernsey]

What do you make of this?







Edit: I realize that you might be able to see it so I made it bigger.

[sa547]

Uh, one more question: how big is your hard disk?

[Guernsey]

About 10 GB.

[sa547]

10gb... Just about the same size as the Seagate on my older Compaq Deskpro.

The only software you have to keep on the hard drive are the ones you deem as completely essential, and the others... you can uninstall unnecessary programs, and back up any unused media (this includes MP3s) and documents to blank discs or thumbdrives.

It may sounds nice to buy a dirt-cheap 80gb hard drive as interim storage until you have enough money to get a brand-new drive, but IMHO any used hard drives (those over 2 years old) could be too risky to use (due to possible data loss or bad sectors or virus-infested unless formatted).

[Dist]

10GB HDD and you can't afford to buy a new HDD? Surely you must be joking. If we had been talking about 1TB drive and not being able to afford a new one, I'd understand but this... You can get like 40 or 80GB drive for probably just 10-20 bucks.. if not even less.

[Tiberium Wolf]

BTW, you can delete those $ntUninstall dirs.

[Guernsey]

Originally Posted by Dist

10GB HDD and you can't afford to buy a new HDD? Surely you must be joking. If we had been talking about 1TB drive and not being able to afford a new one, I'd understand but this... You can get like 40 or 80GB drive for probably just 10-20 bucks.. if not even less.

Yeah well, the computer that parents gave not too lng ago was refurbished business PC. I need to get a job.

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

BTW, you can delete those $ntUninstall dirs.

Good to know.

[synaesthetic]

You can use nLite to slim a Windows XP install down to under 200MB.

[Stealthtank]

It looks like you are running Windows XP. I thought that Microsoft ceased developing new security updates for XP. From my experience it looks like they are only releasing the 'Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool' every month.

Originally Posted by Guernsey

Yeah well, the computer that parents gave not too lng ago was refurbished business PC. I need to get a job.

If you have a Windows XP installation disc you should consider doing a clean install (update as well, its importance has already been established) and then install only the programs that are essential for your needs. That or you could throw familiarity out the window and try installing a Linux distribution. There are a number of them designed to use minimal hard drive space.

[synaesthetic]

A lightweight Linux distro would probably improve performance on a computer old enough to have a 10GB hard drive, anyway.