Can I delete the cached PT installers?

Question

My 120 GB SSD C drive is getting full, and when I look for what’s taking space, the cashed installers for PT 7.5, 7.6 & 8 are together taking just short of 0.5 GB I’m referring to files with paths like:

c:\ProgramData\Package Cache\{2FD0944B-A14A-48B0-AA6F-C81EBDA52CC7}v7.5.100.10\ParatextInstaller.msi

Can I delete these? or at least move them to my 1 TB drive, and move them back if I want to do an uninstall?

Answer 1

You could certainly delete cached installers for versions that are no longer installed. I suspect that if you delete the installer file for an app that is currently installed, you will no longer be able to successfully uninstall it. Also, it will almost certainly interfere with the ability to do a major upgrade for the application. You may want to look elsewhere to free up space on your drive.

anon442907

Comments

anon442907:

Also, it will almost certainly interfere with the ability to do a major upgrade for the application.

I’m intrigued that an upgrade installer would need access to the original installer.

Or, put it another way, if someone sends me a ZIP file, and I decide I want to keep the files on my storage in uncompressed format, then I decompress and, once that’s done, delete the ZIP file. But an installer that installs its content and then copies itself to the same drive seems like you’re keeping both the compressed and the uncompressed versions of pretty much the same data. I might be tempted to exclaim, “what a waste of storage space!”

I know that installers may not install all that’s in them because, say, 32-bit and 64-bit systems might need different files. But still, is there not a better – a more economical – way?

I’m still tempted to move these files to my other drive, and temporarily move them back whenever I do an upgrade.

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wdavidhj:

I’m intrigued that an upgrade installer would need access to the original installer.

@anon442907 can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is because the Paratext upgrade process has to uninstall the previous version.

wdavidhj:

I might be tempted to exclaim, “what a waste of storage space!”

Well, everything in the C:\ProgramData\Package Cache directory is installers for everything you’ve installed staying around. Admittedly the Paratext installer is bigger than most, but still, it’s the way the Windows installer system works.