Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)

[thraxed]

You could probably save some space if you go into your windows dir and delete all folders that begin with a $, and all files within folders WINDOWS\Installer & WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Windows way of just hogging space.

[Dehcbad25]

You could probably save some space if you go into your windows dir and delete all folders that begin with a $, and all files within folders WINDOWS\Installer & WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Windows way of just hogging space.

True and not so true.
the $ folders (hidden intallation and backup folders) are used to keep a copy of replaced files during install. If you delete the folders, you can claim back space, you lose the ability to unistall the update. In some cases it can even create headaches later on. I had been forced to clean those folders because of bad partitioning, and I had to workaround when something goes wrong and those folders are not there. Usually I prefer to leave them there. All the updates are only taking 900MB on unistall files.
considering I have 25GB on ISO files (I save the updates CDs from MS) it is more worth it to clean from there.