Duplicate Files (XP PRO)

I've been checking out duplicate files on my laptop and have come across lots of the same (?) files repeated up to 4 times in different Folders/ Files (see thumbnail)

As my Path command shows:- %SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\system32;%systemRoot%\system32\Wbem;c:\windows\I386;c:\useful;C:\windows\system32\gs\gs7.05\bin

where %systemRoot% is C:\Windows
%SystemRoot%\system32; is Windows\System32

As long as I keep one entry in C:|windows\system32, (or C:\windows) why do I need the rest? Shouldn't the Path command take care of it all?

:confused Bazza

 

Bump. :major Bazza

 

I believe you need to leave all the folders in the path command, because i believe path isn't recursive, as each time your at a prompt, and type say "blah" it searches every directory listed in path statement for blah.exe, blah.bat and so on. So making it recursive where it searches all sub directorys would cause it to take forever.

 

I know what you are getting at, Colemanguy.

In "ye olde" MS-DOS days, the PATH command was really important. Less so nowadays, I guess.

I still believe that it is rather poor programming to have the exact same file 4 times, in various Folders. Why not put just one entry in C:\Windows\system32 or something like a C:\CommonFiles Folder.

I don't believe that would slow down a PC that much, if they were all in the first Path Folder, or in a Folder in C: root directory (Folder).

Any other opinions / suggestions welcome.
Bazza

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\cmdcons - this folder contains troubleshooting and recovery programs. It's useful but if you needed the space you could delete this folder.
\Windows\I386 - this folder contains the 'uninstalled' OS. It was probably copied from the CD directly to the hard-drive. It's useful, but may be deleted.
\Windows\Windows32 and \Windows\Windows32\dllcache are 'OS-current' and 'OS-storage' files. These are very necessary, and should be left alone.

 

Thanks for the info, prometheos. Space isn't the problem, although I like to keep my full backup to as small as possible, when backing up to DVD's.

I just have a bee in my bonnet about duplicated (unneccessary) files. My experience from the old MS-DOS days is that if most of the files in the dllcache Folder are also duplicated in the Windows32 Folder, then the PATH command will take care of them.

I'll backup (and delete) a few in the dll Folder and see what happens. Bazza

PS: Check out http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=151176 for unnecessary Java entries, as an example of what accumulates on our PC's. Baz
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