manage Windows Update C: drive "deposits"

I use Windows update regularly. Over time, many security updates have been
installed on my machine. But now my C: drive - a 10 GB partition - is
getting nearly full (only 840 MB free).

And I see that there are *many* compressed folders in my C:\Windows folder,
with names like "$NtUninstallKB840987$". They currently take up about a GB
on my C: drive.

I presume these are the pieces needed to uninstall various updates. Is there
any SAFE way to reclaim this disk space? Especially for updates installed
"long ago" that one is not likely to want to uninstall.

I suppose one could just delete these files (or some subset of them), but
I'm guessing that doing this would leave dangling entries in the "uninstall
software" screen of the "Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet. It
may also render your "update history" broken or inaccurate.

Any hints on this?

Thanks.

The program Updates Cleanup was made exactly for the purpose to clean up
after MS Updates:

http://www.pc-shareware.com/update.htm

You don’t even have to buy it (but it is very cheap), just try it once and
watch the space grow!

Yes, I use it myself.

Thanks for the tip Curt!

"Curt" <> wrote in message
news:AB0CF670-3B86-49F3-8A95-...
> The program Updates Cleanup was made exactly for the purpose to clean up
> after MS Updates:
>
> http://www.pc-shareware.com/update.htm
>
> You don't even have to buy it (but it is very cheap), just try it once and
> watch the space grow!
>
> Yes, I use it myself.
>
>