PatchCleaner 1.2.0.0 - Windows Installer Directory cleanup utility

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PatchCleaner 1.2.0.0 - Windows Installer Directory cleanup utility
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Includes: Local install + Portable
Freeware by HomeDev



Windows Installer Directory

When applications are installed and updated on the Windows Operating System a hidden directory c:WindowsInstaller is used to store the installer (.msi) files and the patch (.msp) files.
Generally these files are important as during updating patching or uninstalling software it will use the .msi/.msp files. If you blanketly delete all the files in this folder, you will find yourself needing to rebuild windows.
Over time as your computer is patched and patched again, these installer files become outdated and orphaned. They are no longer required, but they can take up many gigabytes of data.

Features of PatchCleaner

PatchCleaner identifies these redundant/orphaned files and allows you to either:

- (Recommended) Move them to another location. If you want to play it safe, just move them to another location, and if things start going wrong you can always copy them back.
- Delete them.

How it works

Its pretty simple. The windows operating system holds a list of current installers and patches, that can be accessed via WMI calls, (Windows Management Instrumentation ).

PatchCleaner obtains this list of the known msi/msp files and compares that against all the msi/msp files that are found in the c:WindowsInstaller directory.
Anything that is in the folder but not on the windows provided list is considered an orphaned file and is tagged to be moved or deleted.

Authors cannot warrant that PatchCleaner will not find a false positive and delete a required patch which is why we recommend using the move feature, that way you can always copy the patches back if required.

Known Issues

The product uses an operating system obtained list of known patches that are required by the computer, everything else is considered orphaned.
The following is a list of known issues where PatchCleaner may incorrectly delete a required Patch causing an installer or updater to stop working.

- Adobe Reader - The automated update packages can error after running patch cleaner. The work around is to uninstall and re-install to upgrade Adobe Reader. The issue is PatchCleaner correctly retains the last Adobe reader patch, but the Adobe reader updater uses more than just the last patch when updating, so the missing patch files for previous, previous versions will cause the auto updater to fail.

Requirements

Windows 7 / 8 or 10, (not compatible with windows XP)
.Net framework 4.5.2

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