Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
October 8, 2006

Volume 2, Number 17 — Sunday, October 8, 2006

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

3.  Add or Remove Programs

Reader Wes Hill wrote me about removing some entries in his Add/Remove Programs listing in Windows Control Panel:

Hi Terry,

When I look in add/remove programs and see these items : Security update for Windows media player(KB911564, 5, and 17734) do I need to keep them? They use about 17+MB each! Also, all those windows 2000 hotfix entries!! Thanks for your help,

Wes

Basically, anything you find in the Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs listing is there so you can remove it. Sometimes, that's necessary. You might want to remove a program you no longer use in order to get back some disk space.

Some programs actually allow you to install and remove individual components using the Add or Remove Programs interface. Windows itself is one of these — but the Add or Remove Windows Components is in the headings on the left.

The important thing to realize is that, if you select "Remove", you're going to uninstall the program from your computer.

In this case, yes, we need to keep these items. They are listed in Add/Remove Programs only so that you can remove them if they are causing problems.

If you remove them, you would be removing those secuity fixes from Windows. Don't do it.

A better bet, if you need to free up some disk space, is to look at how much space you're allowing Internet Explorer to use for Temporary Internet Files. By default, that's 10% of your hard drive.

I have IE set with 6 MB for Temporary Internet Files (also known as "browser cache"). If I was using dialup, I'd probably use 20 MB.

Similarly, look at System Restore's settings, which also default to 10% of the drive. Of course, if you reduce the System Restore space, you'll be able to keep fewer restore points, so you've got a trade-off to consider if you change the System Restore settings.

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4.  Compacting Email Folders

There is a little trick to the way POP3 email programs like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and Thunderbird store the email messages you receive. A "deleted message" is not really deleted! Did you know that?

All your email program does is to rewrite a few characters in the file in order to tell itself that a particular email has been "deleted."

One particular marking in the file indicates that the email has been deleted, so the program shows it in the Trash folder. A different marking shows it has been deleted from the Trash folder. But, it really has not been removed from the big email storage files.

In Eudora (which I use), it is under Special / Compact Mailboxes. In Outlook Express, it's found at File / Folder / Compact All Folders.

In Outlook Express, the process is similarly easy — File, Folder, Compact All Folders.

In Outlook, the process is much more complicated to compact one of its .pst files. The process, from the main Outlook Express window is to select File, Data File Management, select a file, click the Settings button, then click Compact Now button.

1. On the main Outlook window, Click on File, then Data File Management.
2. This will open a dialog box labelled "Outlook Data Files" -- and Inbox, Deleted, Sent etc ARE NOT displayed or choices in this dialog box.
3. In my case, the only folder shown has the name "Personal Folders". I click on it to select it, then click on the Settings button. This opens another dialog box labelled Personal Folders.
4. It has two buttons "Change Password..." and "Compact Now"
5. Click "Compact Now" -- it will take a while.
6. Then click OK to close the dialog box.

Regardless of which email program you use, you need to Compact the Folders occasionally. Only in this manner are the emails actually deleted -- and this is the only way that the email files and folders actually get smaller.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Volume 2, Number 17 — Sunday, October 8, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.