So-called "Critical" updates for a small hard drive

I'm running Windows XP Professional on a 20 GB hard drive, and the operating
system seems to be chewing up most of the available space. For perhaps the
last two years, I have held off installing SP2 because there wasn't enough
space available.

Yesterday, I cleared out enough space for the SP2 plus the 45 or so
"critical" updates that the update function claimed I needed. Now, I can't
figure out how Internet Explorer 7, Outlook, or any of that stuff it
installed is so #$^% "critical" that the update function should make me
install it like it did. The computer worked before and afterwards; the main
difference is now I am dealing with a confusing IE7 interface that I don't
like, and that the computer now takes an extraordinarily long time to boot
up. Which updates did I REALLY need to make my computer secure for browsing
the internet, and how can I identify and trash the other stuff that I don't
need or use to free up more space on my hard drive?

--Shara

Hello Shara,

You can remove IE7 in the control panel under add remove programs.

About the disk space concern: hard drives are really very very cheapp at the
moment and I would buy another hard drive to increase disk space, even a
large USB 2.0 hard drive is very cheap at the moment, so why make it hard on
yourself if a little money can save you a lot of worries?

Best regards,
Michel Denie

"SCW" <> wrote in message
news:CE2297D9-686F-4364-A661-...
> I'm running Windows XP Professional on a 20 GB hard drive, and the
> operating
> system seems to be chewing up most of the available space. For perhaps
> the
> last two years, I have held off installing SP2 because there wasn't enough
> space available.
>
> Yesterday, I cleared out enough space for the SP2 plus the 45 or so
> "critical" updates that the update function claimed I needed. Now, I
> can't
> figure out how Internet Explorer 7, Outlook, or any of that stuff it
> installed is so #$^% "critical" that the update function should make me
> install it like it did. The computer worked before and afterwards; the
> main
> difference is now I am dealing with a confusing IE7 interface that I don't
> like, and that the computer now takes an extraordinarily long time to boot
> up. Which updates did I REALLY need to make my computer secure for
> browsing
> the internet, and how can I identify and trash the other stuff that I
> don't
> need or use to free up more space on my hard drive?
>
> --Shara