W7/2K8 R2 SP1: Remove unneeded Service Pack files

As you might know SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 has been released recently. This SP contains all prior updates released through Windows update and some important updates aside from that.

In this short blogpost I will explain how you can remove the installation files of the SP so you can keep your installation tidy. This is particularly handy when you want to create an image of the installation so you can have your pc's deployed with SP1 included from now on.

Now, off we go.

1. First, open My Computer.
2. Right click on your C-Drive (or the drive on which Windows is installed on, for the sake of argument I'll assume this is C).
3. Choose Properties.

4. Clik Disk Cleanup.

5. Click Clean up System Files.

6. Tick Service Pack Backup Files so the checkbox is selected. As you can see this will cleanup about 540M on my pc.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Stefan Hazenbroek