Windows Installer Cleanup Utility retired, alternative?

So the Windows\installer folder (and the WinSxS folder, but that's another story) is eating up quite a LOT of space on my hdd. Windows Installer Cleanup utility was the tool of the trade before, but now Microsoft zapped it with the reason that it's insecure and might delete something that shouldn't be deleted.

So my question is: If I shouldn't use this tool to try freeing some space, what else? My Windows directory is, alone, using like 25 gb. Most of it comes to the installer and winsxs folder.

sinni800

Posted 2011-07-11T11:10:32.203

Reputation: 3 048

Answers

Priform's CCLeaner is a popular choice for removing tempoary files, unistalling programes and generally tidying up. Free for non-bussiness use, supports Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 and both 32 and 64-bit flavours.

tombull89

Posted 2011-07-11T11:10:32.203

Reputation: 6 533

This covers general cleaning of a Windows installation. The windows installer cleanup is quite specific though :). Also I'd have refered to all the other questions regarding Windows cleanup then. – sinni800 – 2011-07-11T11:20:01.557

CCleaner also allows removal of uninstallers and caches for installed updates, which can be a significant chunck of disk space if you've never cleaned them before. – music2myear – 2011-07-11T22:11:36.440

Try BleachBit This application is similar to ccleaner, it frees cache, deletes cookies, clears Internet history, shreds temporary files, deletes logs, and discards junk.

Use BleachBit to:

Free disk space
Reduce the size of backups and the time to create them by removing unnecessary files -
Maintain privacy Improve system performance
Clear applications cache

BleachBit includes a growing list of cleaners. Typically each cleaner represents an application such as Firefox or Internet Explorer. Within each cleaner, BleachBit gives options covering components that can be cleaned such as cache, cookies, and log files.

raym0nd

Posted 2011-07-11T11:10:32.203

Reputation: 131

Could you please [edit] your answer to include a bit of info about what the software is and how it solves the problem? Just including a link is not very helpful. – nhinkle – 2011-07-11T20:00:25.347

Also info on how it relates to my problem. I got ccleaner. But does BleachBit also clean the Windows Installer Cache? – sinni800 – 2011-07-11T20:49:23.703

You can try revo uninstaller. I don't know how good the free version is though.

Kevin Qiu

Posted 2011-07-11T11:10:32.203

Reputation: 101

I don't actually want to delete programs. I just want to clean the Windows installer CACHE. I know that uninstalling programs would also make the cache smaller ;), but this is not what I am asking for... EDIT: Holy crap it does try finding artifacts of not completely uninstalled programs. I'll try it out! – sinni800 – 2011-07-11T19:15:35.750

I think the "Junk Files Cleaner" option might do what you're asking. – Kevin Qiu – 2011-07-11T19:18:41.933

Yes, I am testing it now! – sinni800 – 2011-07-11T19:30:24.927