Each time a hotfix is installed, the files updated are saved in the C:\Windows\winsxs folder so that the update can be uninstalled if necessary.
This includes updates have been superseded by other updates so will never be re-installed.
If workstations are short of space there is a process that can be run that free up over 4.7Gb of disk space, which are these superseded updates.
To do this:
- Login as a local administrator
- Install Microsoft hotfix KB2852386 from \\hallam.shu.ac.uk\aipapps\MD7\Hotfixes\Microsoft\KB2852386
- In the Start Menu search box type “disk clean” and open the top result, which will open Disk Cleanup
- Allow cleanup to include Windows updates. This will take a few minutes.
- When completed, restart the workstation. The cleanup process will start during the restart.
This whole process can quite a long time to complete.
Once this has been done it would be worth performing a defrag on the disk as well.