Programs of similar use?

Topic

New Reply

Hi everyone,
I am in desperate need of space on my hard drives and now is not the time to buy a new one. I also hate clutter and have let this machine get out of control (not only user.) Can’t reformat at this time either. I have attached a file that shows the Control Panel of my computer. It seems like I have many programs that do similar things yet I do not know which are necessary. I want to be able to browse the internet without having problems but some of these items seem like overkill (the Java program is 107.00MB alone.) I have tried to look up some of the entries by name but still do not understand their uses. Inet pub anyone? Would somebody please take a look at this and offer some advice? One more question; on Windows XP, are everyone’s control panels different???

Thanks, as always.

Reply | Quote

Replies

You forgot to post the attachment?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Help! Even when I split the file in half and create .pdf’s I’m still over 100k. Now what?

Thanks.

Reply | Quote

Here is the first screen shot.

Reply | Quote

And now the second.

John, I will try to do as you suggested, however, I question my own abilities!

Thanks.

Reply | Quote

I don’t know why – you’ve managed to create some PDFs!

Were you to try TreeSize Pro and get it to expand the Program Files directory you’d be able to see how much disk space many of these applications take. Lots of these you must keep, because you probably need them for your hardware, and also your software. Eliminate these, and ask about the questionable ones (but as I said, if one occupies only a few tens of MB, it’s not worth worrying about!).

You never said how big your hard disk was, and how full?

John

PS You could produce a file (C:ProgFile.TXT) showing how big each Program Files folder was by running, in a Command Prompt window,
treeinfo “c:program files” > c:progfile.txt

Reply | Quote

I don’t know why – you’ve managed to create some PDFs!

Were you to try TreeSize Pro and get it to expand the Program Files directory you’d be able to see how much disk space many of these applications take. Lots of these you must keep, because you probably need them for your hardware, and also your software. Eliminate these, and ask about the questionable ones (but as I said, if one occupies only a few tens of MB, it’s not worth worrying about!).

You never said how big your hard disk was, and how full?

John

PS You could produce a file (C:ProgFile.TXT) showing how big each Program Files folder was by running, in a Command Prompt window,
treeinfo “c:program files” > c:progfile.txt

Reply | Quote

To try to answer your last query first, administrators will see more entries in control panel than non-administrators. Now to the more pressing issue of disk space. Have you limited each user’s temporary internet file size? Do you have hibernation turned on and not ever use it? Have you cleaned up the temp directory under each user? It appears from your list that there is not an excessive amount of programs installed. It noticed the Kodak picture program. Has anyone been storing a lot of pictures on the PC? They can eat disk space like a little kid eats candy.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

In addition to above, I see that you Napster installed, is it set up to be a “Server” if so what space is being used as the server?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

Hi all,
I did download Tree Size Professional and am trying to figure that out; it did suggest that I change from FAT32 to NTFS so I checked Woody’s XP for you know who and found that it was advisable so I did the conversion on both hard drives.
The only thing I have noticed is that I am running much more slowly . . .
Napster is the new Napster; not the music sharing version just basically a music store.
The Java program that is listed in the Control Panel is 107.00MB – is that necessary? It is bigger than most programs I use for business!
Thanks again – I’m still working on it…

Reply | Quote

Java is only needed if you access a web site that uses it. If you search around you could find a copy of the old MS JVM but it has not been enhanced in years. You’d be better off sticking with the Sun JVM.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Java is only needed if you access a web site that uses it. If you search around you could find a copy of the old MS JVM but it has not been enhanced in years. You’d be better off sticking with the Sun JVM.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

The file sizes in the Add/Remove programs control panel are known to be somewhat inaccurate. However, the standard Java Runtime Environment package does include some files (maybe source code) that you probably don’t need. Whether it’s worth fishing around for that, I’m not sure… also, I think 107MB just seems wrong (see attached).

Reply | Quote

On my system the add/remove dialog shows Java as 108MB (version 1.4.2_05)
The C:Program FilesJava folder is 34MB so that leaves about 74MB stored elsewhere if the add/remove dialog value is correct.
The download file to install Java is about 15MB so that must use a very efficient compression routine if it does expand to 108MB

Reply | Quote

I don’t have the latest version, apparently. I do remember that Sun had a big download for developers by default, so perhaps I passed on that one?? Anyway, here’s the most infamous example of out-of-whack size that I know about. Canon said they couldn’t fix it!

Reply | Quote

On my system, Karen’s Directory Printer takes up 1.41 MB in reality, but the Add/Remove Programs control panel reports 6,349.00 MB

Reply | Quote

FWIW, the value comes from the registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{xxxxxxxx-yyyy-zzzz-zzzz-xxxxxxxxxxxx}Estimated Size” for each program. I’d guess that it is the vendor’s responsibility to set the value correctly. Probably just a misinterpretation of what the value should be.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

FWIW, the value comes from the registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionUninstall{xxxxxxxx-yyyy-zzzz-zzzz-xxxxxxxxxxxx}Estimated Size” for each program. I’d guess that it is the vendor’s responsibility to set the value correctly. Probably just a misinterpretation of what the value should be.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

On my system, Karen’s Directory Printer takes up 1.41 MB in reality, but the Add/Remove Programs control panel reports 6,349.00 MB

Reply | Quote

I don’t have the latest version, apparently. I do remember that Sun had a big download for developers by default, so perhaps I passed on that one?? Anyway, here’s the most infamous example of out-of-whack size that I know about. Canon said they couldn’t fix it!

Reply | Quote

On my system the add/remove dialog shows Java as 108MB (version 1.4.2_05)
The C:Program FilesJava folder is 34MB so that leaves about 74MB stored elsewhere if the add/remove dialog value is correct.
The download file to install Java is about 15MB so that must use a very efficient compression routine if it does expand to 108MB

Reply | Quote

I definitely agree!

Reply | Quote

I definitely agree!

Reply | Quote

The file sizes in the Add/Remove programs control panel are known to be somewhat inaccurate. However, the standard Java Runtime Environment package does include some files (maybe source code) that you probably don’t need. Whether it’s worth fishing around for that, I’m not sure… also, I think 107MB just seems wrong (see attached).

Reply | Quote

You need te Java runtime only if yoiu run Java programs.

107MB is not that much.
How much disk space do you have available?

Converting from FAT32 to NTFS can actually use more space.

What is the size of each of your FAT 32 partitions and what is the cluster size?
If you make each FAT partition no more than 8189MB, then cluster size is 4096 and you save lots of space.

Reply | Quote

> You need te Java runtime only if yoiu run Java programs.

Unless you don’t get out on the web very much, you’re going to stumble across numerous sites using Java every month. Seems sensible to be prepared.

Reply | Quote

I’ve not explicitly installed the runtimes, so far no problems,

Reply | Quote

I’ve not explicitly installed the runtimes, so far no problems,

Reply | Quote

> You need te Java runtime only if yoiu run Java programs.

Unless you don’t get out on the web very much, you’re going to stumble across numerous sites using Java every month. Seems sensible to be prepared.

Reply | Quote

You need te Java runtime only if yoiu run Java programs.

107MB is not that much.
How much disk space do you have available?

Converting from FAT32 to NTFS can actually use more space.

What is the size of each of your FAT 32 partitions and what is the cluster size?
If you make each FAT partition no more than 8189MB, then cluster size is 4096 and you save lots of space.

Reply | Quote

Hi all,
I did download Tree Size Professional and am trying to figure that out; it did suggest that I change from FAT32 to NTFS so I checked Woody’s XP for you know who and found that it was advisable so I did the conversion on both hard drives.
The only thing I have noticed is that I am running much more slowly . . .
Napster is the new Napster; not the music sharing version just basically a music store.
The Java program that is listed in the Control Panel is 107.00MB – is that necessary? It is bigger than most programs I use for business!
Thanks again – I’m still working on it…

Reply | Quote

In addition to above, I see that you Napster installed, is it set up to be a “Server” if so what space is being used as the server?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

To try to answer your last query first, administrators will see more entries in control panel than non-administrators. Now to the more pressing issue of disk space. Have you limited each user’s temporary internet file size? Do you have hibernation turned on and not ever use it? Have you cleaned up the temp directory under each user? It appears from your list that there is not an excessive amount of programs installed. It noticed the Kodak picture program. Has anyone been storing a lot of pictures on the PC? They can eat disk space like a little kid eats candy.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

And now the second.

John, I will try to do as you suggested, however, I question my own abilities!

Thanks.

Reply | Quote

Here is the first screen shot.

Reply | Quote

Help! Even when I split the file in half and create .pdf’s I’m still over 100k. Now what?

Thanks.

Reply | Quote

You forgot to post the attachment?

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I would approach this in two ways:

1) by using either TreeInfo or TreeSize Professional (download an evaluation copy) to find the largest directories and/or files to see whether any can be removed

2) by deciding which applications, etc, can be removed because you know they aren’t needed (Control Panel => Add/Remove Programs is a good place to look).

There is little point spending lots of time in finding that you can get rid of 10 MB of files – you’re looking for Large Numbers!

Running either TreeInfo (a DOS-type program) or preferably TreeSize Pro (a GUI with the ability to drill down – sort by Size) will give you hard information! Possibly the Temporary Internet Files folders will be large? Or maybe the System Volume Information (if ME or XP) files are huge (I know mine are!)?

Download, run, and be amazed.

John

Reply | Quote

I have two hard drives: the C drive 10 GIG with 3.73 available (after deleting, deleting, deleting!) and the second drive known as the G drive with 12.8 GIG with 1.21 available and its’ partition the E drive which is 1.51 GIG with 782 MG available. The E drive is the first partition on the second drive and is used for the Page File. I converted C & G from FAT 32 to NTFS at the command prompt by typing: convert Drive letter: /fs:ntfs and I got the following question: see screenshot. I can follow directions pretty well but not so good at curveballs – I know this is a simple answer (just don’t know it!)
If I can not get E changed to NTFS is it okay to leave it at FAT32 while the other two (one being the second partition of E?)

Mucho Gracias!

Reply | Quote

Have you run the Disk Cleanup utility and the defrag utility ?? Made Certain there’s no spyware or adware on the system to slow things down ???

Reply | Quote

Thanks to everyone who shared knowledge and suggestions with these problems. I have tried everything suggested and am still at work trying to understand Tree Size Professional. I did find that the Ad Aware program I had would no longer update so I went to the web site and found a new version; the new version found lots and lots of junk! I have defragged, run Spybot, Norton Anti-Virus and checked into hibernation and used System Mechanic to clean up junk files.

My final conclusion: I need a larger hard drive as soon as I can afford it. In the meantime, the system is definitely cleaner!

Many thanks to all that jumped in to help!

Reply | Quote

Jumping in here after the event, there is a ware program I use (as if you need another one!) called Sequoia that gives you a pictorial representation of your HDs and folders, as below. This makes it dead easy to spot the space hogs… a picture being a thousand words and all that.

Alan

Reply | Quote

Jumping in here after the event, there is a ware program I use (as if you need another one!) called Sequoia that gives you a pictorial representation of your HDs and folders, as below. This makes it dead easy to spot the space hogs… a picture being a thousand words and all that.

Alan

Reply | Quote

Thanks to everyone who shared knowledge and suggestions with these problems. I have tried everything suggested and am still at work trying to understand Tree Size Professional. I did find that the Ad Aware program I had would no longer update so I went to the web site and found a new version; the new version found lots and lots of junk! I have defragged, run Spybot, Norton Anti-Virus and checked into hibernation and used System Mechanic to clean up junk files.

My final conclusion: I need a larger hard drive as soon as I can afford it. In the meantime, the system is definitely cleaner!

Many thanks to all that jumped in to help!

Reply | Quote

Have you run the Disk Cleanup utility and the defrag utility ?? Made Certain there’s no spyware or adware on the system to slow things down ???

Reply | Quote

If all you have in a disk partition is the Page/Swap File, then it doesn’t really matter what file system you’re using since it has its own disk accessing mechanism anyway! You can have different file organisations on different partitions on the same hard disk.

Also, I think you are potentially barking up the wrong tree in looking at the sizes of applications in Add/Remove Programs. The two utilities I suggested produce the actual amount of disk space used by files in a directory by adding up the individual file sizes of each file. I make a lot of use of both on our file servers.

In TreeSize Pro click on the “1/9/downarrow” button to sort in descending size order, and on the Details button (third from end of second toolbar) to show the directory and file details in the right-hand pane. The rest should be intuitive and you should be able to pick out the largest directories, and by drilling down, subdirectories, for further investigation.

John

PS Doc’s suggestion to run Defrag (perhaps a few times, too!) on your data partitions after a conversion to NTFS is a very good one, because the conversion process, particularly for fairly full drives, produces more fragmentation than you would ever believe possible! (As you will see when looking at the “disk organisation bar”)

Reply | Quote

If all you have in a disk partition is the Page/Swap File, then it doesn’t really matter what file system you’re using since it has its own disk accessing mechanism anyway! You can have different file organisations on different partitions on the same hard disk.

Also, I think you are potentially barking up the wrong tree in looking at the sizes of applications in Add/Remove Programs. The two utilities I suggested produce the actual amount of disk space used by files in a directory by adding up the individual file sizes of each file. I make a lot of use of both on our file servers.

In TreeSize Pro click on the “1/9/downarrow” button to sort in descending size order, and on the Details button (third from end of second toolbar) to show the directory and file details in the right-hand pane. The rest should be intuitive and you should be able to pick out the largest directories, and by drilling down, subdirectories, for further investigation.

John

PS Doc’s suggestion to run Defrag (perhaps a few times, too!) on your data partitions after a conversion to NTFS is a very good one, because the conversion process, particularly for fairly full drives, produces more fragmentation than you would ever believe possible! (As you will see when looking at the “disk organisation bar”)

Reply | Quote

You know best what work you do on this machine, what programs you run, etc. but a 780MB pagefile seems rather large to me. If I were to put mine on a separate partition (which I don’t because it wastes too much space) I’d probably make the partition no larger than 750MB. My pagefile is normally 120MB, ballooning to slightly under 400MB when I’m running more tasks than usual.

Reply | Quote

Take a look at http://www.standards.com/ThisAndThat/PageF…ageMonitor.html%5B/url%5D.

Reply | Quote

Take a look at http://www.standards.com/ThisAndThat/PageF…ageMonitor.html%5B/url%5D.

Reply | Quote

You know best what work you do on this machine, what programs you run, etc. but a 780MB pagefile seems rather large to me. If I were to put mine on a separate partition (which I don’t because it wastes too much space) I’d probably make the partition no larger than 750MB. My pagefile is normally 120MB, ballooning to slightly under 400MB when I’m running more tasks than usual.

Reply | Quote

Your drives are way too small for the space hogging apps and systems in use these days.
If you have a free drive bay, easiest is to add a drive.
A 40GB drive is less than $60 these daze.

You might also think why you need each app:

1. What does Viewpoint Media Player do that is not done by Windoze Media Player?
2. What do Corel Applications do that is not done by MSFT Office?
3. Do you need Napster?
4. Look at each app in terms of function, not in terms of disk space used.

In any case, you do need an additional, or larger disk drive.
Otherwise, you will be spending much of your time trying to save disk space.

Reply | Quote

Your drives are way too small for the space hogging apps and systems in use these days.
If you have a free drive bay, easiest is to add a drive.
A 40GB drive is less than $60 these daze.

You might also think why you need each app:

1. What does Viewpoint Media Player do that is not done by Windoze Media Player?
2. What do Corel Applications do that is not done by MSFT Office?
3. Do you need Napster?
4. Look at each app in terms of function, not in terms of disk space used.

In any case, you do need an additional, or larger disk drive.
Otherwise, you will be spending much of your time trying to save disk space.

Reply | Quote

I have two hard drives: the C drive 10 GIG with 3.73 available (after deleting, deleting, deleting!) and the second drive known as the G drive with 12.8 GIG with 1.21 available and its’ partition the E drive which is 1.51 GIG with 782 MG available. The E drive is the first partition on the second drive and is used for the Page File. I converted C & G from FAT 32 to NTFS at the command prompt by typing: convert Drive letter: /fs:ntfs and I got the following question: see screenshot. I can follow directions pretty well but not so good at curveballs – I know this is a simple answer (just don’t know it!)
If I can not get E changed to NTFS is it okay to leave it at FAT32 while the other two (one being the second partition of E?)

Mucho Gracias!

Reply | Quote

I would approach this in two ways:

1) by using either TreeInfo or TreeSize Professional (download an evaluation copy) to find the largest directories and/or files to see whether any can be removed

2) by deciding which applications, etc, can be removed because you know they aren’t needed (Control Panel => Add/Remove Programs is a good place to look).

There is little point spending lots of time in finding that you can get rid of 10 MB of files – you’re looking for Large Numbers!

Running either TreeInfo (a DOS-type program) or preferably TreeSize Pro (a GUI with the ability to drill down – sort by Size) will give you hard information! Possibly the Temporary Internet Files folders will be large? Or maybe the System Volume Information (if ME or XP) files are huge (I know mine are!)?

Download, run, and be amazed.

John

Reply | Quote