Developer Forum

I have been trying to clean up some older files on my PC.
This PC was given to me and has stuff on it that dates
back to 1997. While cleaning some files that I knew were
no longer needed or safe to delete (and being rather new
at this) there were many files that had been installed
long before I had this PC. ( which is about 1 year. My
questions are:

1.How can I find out what files and folders are safe to
delete?

2.What are CSF files? As there many of these files.And are
they safe to delete.As they are taking up a lot of space.

3.To date I have deleted hundreds of unneeded
files/folders
and have not had a problem. But how can I be sure that if
I delete something that has been installed on the PC as
far back as 1997 0r 2000 that I might delete something
that is important in the operation of the PC.

4.When I got this PC I upgradeed from Windows 98 to
Windows 2000 Professional. And went from AOL 8.0 to 9.0.
So most all of the newer stuff I know what it is. But the
older stuff leaves me at a loss. Can anyone help me with
this? Because other then clearing out a lot of old junk
the PC works fine. But it would be a big help to get rid
of much of the old stuff to free up some disk space. Any
help I can get would be appreciated.

You can probably delete any files dated prior to 1999 since you are running
Windows 2000.
I would not delete any files located in the following directorys or the
subdirectories below them.
Windows or Winnt (where the os boot files are located)
Program Files
Documents and Settings

If you do accidently delete needed operating system files and if they are
provided on the Operating System CD, you can boot from the Windows 2000 CD,
choose setup, then choose repair. After doing this you will need to
re-install any hotfixes and service packs that had been applied to the
Operating System.

Joe Griffin [MS]
Windows 2000 Server Setup Team

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil\fprq2\fcharset0 MS Sans Serif;}}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 You can probably delete any files dated prior to 1999 since you are running Windows 2000.
\par I would not delete any files located in the following directorys or the subdirectories below them.
\par Windows or Winnt (where the os boot files are located)
\par Program Files
\par Documents and Settings
\par
\par If you do accidently delete needed operating system files and if they are provided on the Operating System CD, you can boot from the Windows 2000 CD, choose setup, then choose repair. After doing this you will need to re-install any hotfixes and service packs that had been applied to the Operating System.
\par
\par Joe Griffin [MS]
\par Windows 2000 Server Setup Team
\par
\par --
\par This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
\par rights.
\par
\par }