Freeing Disk Space

[Sheep]

I'm running low on disk space on my C drive. Can anyone give me some tips on freeing some up without having to delete any installed programs?

Also, in "Add and Remove Programs", there's a bunch of 'programs' called "Windows XP Hotfix (SP1) Qxxxxxx" where the x's are replaced by numbers. I was wondering what these were, and if it is safe for me to remove them. (I think they have to do with Windows Media Player, but I'm not sure)

Thanks for your help.

[The Tool]

Don't remove Hotfix's - they fix the bugs and exploits in Windows XP. They use only around 1-5 MB space.

[TAB]

Sheep,

Removing existing software is the only way to free up significant space on your hard drive. However, there is one way which is somewhat effective. It has to do with deleting "restore points" which are no longer necessary. Windows XP takes "snapshots" of your entire operating system (which requires quite a lot of space) from time to time and highlights these dates in System Restore. This is why your computer strangely loses hard drive space over time. In other words: one day you have 76% left on your hard drive, then sometime later you have only 74%, then 72% etc.

Do this simple task as follows: Run "Disk Cleanup" and as soon as it comes up, go to the "More Options" tab and select "System Restore" at the bottom. Click ok and allow Disk Cleanup to finish running. You will be surprised at how much free space you will have -- if your computer is very old. By the way, this feature will not delete the most recent restore point.

Regards,

TAB

[Sheep]

Thanks for your help, TAB. I'll try your suggestion right away.