What is safe to remove in \Documents and Settings?

[Frank E]

I'm going through all the Systems files and profiles and there are really old settings apps and user files in Documents and Settings. I'm inclined to leave the folders alone but some of the data in there isfrom as far bak as 2001 - old favourites, old apps.

I think I deleted some users from the PC and the data has been retained.
I'm wondering if it is safe to delete the profiles or at least the old data in the profiles?

If I set up a profile with the same name as a profile that has been deleted does the new user of that name inherit the properies of the old user of the same name?
If I reinstalled XP wouldall these defunct profile setting reinstall too?

There are basically three users left on the PC; Administrator (built in a/c), 'Admin' both with admin privileges and Guest.


When I look in the group "users" from computer management there are users called
ASPNET
NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users(S- )
NT Authority\Interactive (S- )

Can I delete these three or disable?

Admin (hasn't been accessed or modifed since 2003) 102MB
Admin.PC (looks like current profile so obviously want to keep this) 17.6GB
Admin~PC (hasn't been accessed since 2007, nothing much in there only Application data and Local settings for old app Acrobat 2001 etc that are superseded alcwdm64.sys and alcxwdm.sys for Realtak which I have in Prog files anyway ) 24.3MB
Administrator (Think it is still in use accessible from safe mode) 8.19M
All Users (Start menu and favourites from 2003) 11.3M
All Users.WINDOWS (mostly old stuff 2003 but desktop has recent items and App data is recent ) keep 1.5GB
Application Data (only two folders leading to quick launch used 2007) 0B
Default User (accessed 2003, the files are well out of date and not used anymore) 328k
Default User.WINDOWS (mostly empty foder the te,plates and files ar e not used) 431k
Joe Bloggs (not used since 2003. This user doesn't exist in users and accounts) 9MB
Local Service (Both Folders App data and Local settings are c. 2003) 519k
Local Service.NT AUTHOITY(can;t see a Gig of anything in here.) 1.06GB
NetworkService (only two folders leading to quick launch used 2003) 482kB
NetworkService.NT AUTHOITY (Looks like it's currently used by system) 2.23MB

[Funkstar]

I think I deleted some users from the PC and the data has been retained.
I'm wondering if it is safe to delete the profiles or at least the old data in the profiles?

Yes, it will be fine.

If I set up a profile with the same name as a profile that has been deleted does the new user of that name inherit the properies of the old user of the same name?

I don't think so, I think a new folder is created for them

If I reinstalled XP wouldall these defunct profile setting reinstall too?

No, they would disappear. If you wipe the drive and re-install, where is the installer going to get this info from? If you just delete the Windows folder and re-install it won't like these files to a new user.

[Frank E]

Thanks. I moved a couple of old profiles and the application data folder that was not part of a profile to a temp folder.