Whenever you add programs on Windows or if you update using automatic procedures, the installation files of programs and update patches are saved in a special folder called Windows Installer . This system folder is very important and inside there are many msp or msi files that are installation programs often necessary to perform updates and to uninstall software correctly.
It may happen, however, that following an uninstallation, some orphaned and no longer useful Installer files remain.
On a Windows PC that has been used for a long time, where programs and softwarea are often installed and removed, "Installer" files may have been saved for programs that have already been uninstalled, which being useless can be deleted to recover precious Giga on the disk.
By opening the C: / Windows / Installer system folder, you can find out how many these files are and how much space they take up.
Wanting to clean up the Windows Installer folder, however, it becomes impossible to select orphans because they are not recognizable by eye.
The problem is that there is no indication of the programs to which all these .msi or .msp files refer, so it is absolutely not advisable to delete them all or only the bigger ones, because problems could arise on the programs used daily.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Windows Installer folder is hidden from the system.
In another article the guide to see hidden folders in Windows .
The solution is to use a very precise and free automatic program called PatchCleaner, which works a bit like Ccleaner, specialized only in discovering, finding and removing orphaned and useless Installer files and cleaning the Windows / Installer folder .
This tool is smart enough to identify patch files related to programs that no longer exist or that no longer need to be kept on the PC disk.
Download and install the PatchCleaner program, install it and then run it to make a system scan that searches and detects which files in the Installer folder are now considered superfluous.
After the scan, we will be told how much space is occupied by orphaned files that can be deleted without risk.
The window allows you to click on the various files and see, in detail, which program they refer to, so you can decide whether to keep any of them.
In my case there were several Giga of space that I was able to recover on the C disk without any side effects.
If however you do not want to delete these files, you can also use the Move key to move them to another folder or another disk to keep them for a certain period of safety, until you are sure that everything works well the same .
READ ALSO: See how much space you can recover from the WinSxS folder
