All of the updates will be listed there by date. Sometimes an update can go awry for a multitude of reasons, and if so, you can uninstall the recent hotfix through “Settings -> Control Panel” where you will find an Add/Remove Programs applet. Instead of immediately cleaning up the old backed up files, it’d be better to monitor your PC for a few days to see if everything is working properly, and that nothing “broke” during the update. Are these backed up files useful to retain, or can they be deleted and disk space freed up?Įver since I started using Windows XP, I’ve never had any major problems after installing Windows Update hotfixes. Over time these backup folders accumulate and can occupy a significant amount of disk space.įor example, using a tool to find out what’s using your hard drive space, will probably show that a Windows XP PC with service pack 3 and all the latest hotfixes installed will have created thousands of files and easily takes up 600+ Megabytes of hard disk space. These older files that are replaced are stored in hidden folders in your Windows system folder. All of the files that will be replaced by hotfixes are backed up on your hard drive just in case the update goes bad and you need to return your PC to its prior state and uninstall the patch. Regardless of how the hotfix is obtained, there is one thing you should be aware of. Other ways are through the Automatic Update service which runs in the background on your PC and runs daily or weekly checks for recently issued updates/patches/hotfixes, or by System Administrators downloading and applying patches and hotfixes to your PC. These patches/hotfixes are obtained in a variety of ways such as visiting the Windows Update or Microsoft Update website (accessible from your START button). Microsoft regularly makes available critical Windows XP and Windows 2000 security patches (or hotfixes as they are also called) which ensure that your operating system keeps up to date.

Service pack backup files