Hard Drive Clean-Up (1)

[derekpara]

I'd like to remove items from my hard drive that I don't recognise, but I don't want to cause myself problems, so here are three of the items I had in mind:

'Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (x86) -12.0' (There are quite a few of these with different dates)

'Microsoft Silverlight' ( Never opened it )

'LogMein' (Never opened/used it )

Are they of any use or can I bin them ?

There are a few more but I'll save them for another post !

Thanks.

[Buenchico]

Microsoft Silverlight is a bit like Adobe Flash. i.e. it's not something which you use on its own but something which some websites make a call on to display graphics. There aren't actually that many websites which use Silverlight these days but occasionally you'll find something like an airline's interactive route map won't load if you've not got Silverlight. My own instinct would be to leave it where it is.

I definitely would NOT remove any version of Microsoft Visual C++. That's because each version will have been installed by a program that needs it. If you uninstall a particular version then the program which put it there will stop working.

LogMeIn is software which enables you to remotely control one computer from another one. If you don't need such a feature you can safely uninstall it.

[Guilbert53]

If you don't know what you are doing then don't delete anything you don't recognize.

Would you open your car bonnet and start ripping out wires you don't think you need?

No of course not, well don't do the same on your PC.

Windows relies on hundreds of small programs working together for it to work properly. Removing just one them could stop it working totally and you may be left with a £100 bill for an IT person to fix it all.

Many of these programs like Silverlight and so on are very small and will save almost no space on your hard drive nor speed your computer up, but they COULD stop it working.

Leave well alone.

[derekpara]

Thanks once more, Chris.

And Guilbert, That's why I asked the questions ! Thanks anyway.