Windows 7 Redundant Office 2007 Help Files

pcmacd

Extraordinary Member
I was tidying up my HDD today, and found two different sets of MS Office 2007 help file directories with 4gb of identical content in each. I ran Windiff(x64) on both dirs; they were completely identical.

The directories were located here:

  • "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Microsoft\HelpLibrary"
  • "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary"

Is there some way I can safely remove one of the dirs?

tanks

pc
 
Last edited:
With 45 views and no replies, I thought I would just comment one of the dirs by putting an underscore char in front of the dir name.

Voila!

The "HELPLIBRARY" dir in BOTH places changed simultaneously. Furthermore, closer inspection of both directories shows that they appear to have identical content.

  • Microsoft has done something magic here?
    • Why bother?
  • It appears that the apparent 4gb of redundant data is not really taking up that space on my HDD, although DISKDATA seems to think so...
  • What gives?

tx

pc
 
I was tidying up my HDD today, and found two different sets of MS Office 2007 help file directories with 4gb of identical content in each. I ran Windiff(x64) on both dirs; they were completely identical.

The directories were located here:

  • "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Microsoft\HelpLibrary"
  • "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\HelpLibrary"

Is there some way I can safely remove one of the dirs?

tanks

pc
I suspect that the confusion might be because the "Documents and Settings" reference in your path notation above doesn't actually exist in windows 7 except as a symbolic link, shortcut pointer reference to an actual location for backwards compatibility.
Consider reading the following reference for clarification;
Svrops.com - Windows Vista Junction Points
 
If you delete one, both might just delete. You might want to read about Libraries as well as Junction points. Data will show in Libraries and users folders. The Libraries don't actually contain any data, but pointers to the data. If you delete data from the Libraries it will actually be deleted from the data folders the Libraries point toward. It appears these are duplicates, but THEY ARE NOT. Same can be said for the Junction Points as Trouble mentions.
 
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