Unused profiles in "Documents and Settings"

Nancy wrote:

> Is there anyway to get rid of the profiles that are in "Documents
> and Settings" that don't show up in the profiles and aren't used? I
> only need the Owner, All Users and mine, but there are several
> others that Windows generates for some reason, and I can't delete
> the darn things to free up disk space and speed up virus scans.

If you need the amount of space that deleting the users you did not create
(native Windows XP account) would give you - you have many other issues you
need to address first.

- All Users
- Default User
- LocalService
- NetworkService

The above are system accounts and will be re-created/used as needed by the
system. Erasing them serves no purpose and may cause more harm than good.
Anything else there - either you created or those who installed your
computer created when they installed your computer (if you have Windows XP
Home Edition - you may see "administrator" in that list and never have seen
the option to log in as that user - since you can only do that in Safe Mode
in Windows XP Home Edition.)

Now if *you* created said users, later deleted them but did not get rid of
the directories - that's different. Reboot and log on as a user with
administrative rights, go into the Documents and Settings folder and delte
those account folders. If this is from repair install or parallel install -
things may go bad removing these users as well - depending on how
inter-weaved they are with your current users. In those cases - I recommend
creating a new user - manually moving everything you need (perhaps use the
Files and Settings Transfer Wizard - with that computer as the old and new
computer) to the new account and THEN deleting the old accounts through the
User Accounts control panel and then by manually deleting the folder(s) of
the old accounts.

If you are having 'space' problems...

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm

Used Disk Cleanup?
Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature?
Uninstalled unnecessary applications lately?

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest 5% or
higher.
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 128MB and 256MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 256MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

DX Hog Hunt
http://www.dvxp.com/en/Downloads.aspx

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

If you are concerned over less than 5GB of space total at any given time
being freed up on your hard disk drive - then something is wrong and
you would be better off spending $100 and putting in a drive that is likely
3-8 times as large as what you have not and not concerning yourself over
such a small amount of space OR you seriously need to consider what you
really need on the system and what should be archived.

Basic housekeeping 101... - in an actual home, if your storage area gets
full - you either have to decide what you really should have in the storage
area and what could go or you have to find a new place to store stuff
that will accomodate everything you need. You don't walk into a
warehouse of cars, look at the filing cabinet in the corner where
you keep all the records for the cars and decide that if you move it out of
the warehouse - you will have more room. ;-)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html