I've been spending the week watching those classes over at creativelive.com. My somewhat late post in the comments on today's download didn't make it, so I want to reprise it a bit here in case it helps anyone that got themselves in trouble, or is thinking about it.
Long story short there's some free advice from Jim that's not inaccurate as much as it leaves [what I believe are important] things unsaid.
"For the advanced user, check the following files and see if they exist in the C:\windows32 and or C:\windows\SysWOW64 directories:
akdmo.dll, akmfpl.dll, akwmadmod.dll, AKWMADMOE.dll, AKWMVDECOD.dll, AKWMVENCOD.dll, and AKWMVXENCD.dll. These are all Windows Media Runtime files and should be installed by default to the system directories.
Therefore they are not needed in the Tipard directtory. "
If you look at the file properties, as I'm pretty sure Jim did, those are Microsoft files, but NOT part of the normal Windows Media handling stuff, & they Do Not normally appear in Windows system folder(s). They are used by more than one app from Tipard & Aiseesoft. They are not registered with Windows, so location is irrelevant as long as software looking for them finds them. Since software looks in Windows system folders for needed files, moving those files to the system folder will work. If the versions are the same, the software will not experience problems or behave differently. OTOH you add to bloat in the system folder while not doing much space saving for your time & trouble -- that set of files = ~6 MB.
"If you’re strictly using the English version, you can delete splashscreen_de.png, splashscreen_fr.png, and splashscreen_ja.png. This will save 118KB"
Seriously the only time you need to worry about multiple small files like this is if/when you're putting apps on a USB stick, where because of the way the file system works, these small files can have really outsized impact.
"Check for pthreadGC2.dll, ssleay32.dll and libeay32.dll. These files are most likely in the System directories as well and can be renamed, then deleted if the program works correctly. This saves about 1.48MB"
You Should Not have these files in Windows system folder already -- if you do software you previously installed behaved very badly, & if you know which app it might be that did this, check to see what else it mangled. That said, you could move those files to the system folder, same as the others, & won't have problems IF they are the same version number whatever app expects.
"Since most anyone who downloads from GOATD, the Microsoft.Visual C++ version 9 Runtimes should be installed to the system directory. If so, rename, run the program, verify it works, then delete Microsoft.VC90.CRT.manifest, msvcm90.dll, msvcp90.dll, and msvcr90.dll from the Tipard directory. This will save 1.38MB of space."
This is wrong -- MS recommends that software using their C/C++ runtimes install those runtimes in C:\Windows\ WinSxS. That does not mean you won't have software install them to the system folder, or just copy them there without registering them with Windows -- it's just not 100% correct to do so. Because I monitor this stuff in VMs, I often just copy the app & skip the C/C++ runtime installs to save on bloat in that WinSxS folder -- check the size in folder properties for an eye opener. However, it does not always work -- there are many versions of these files, & no guarantee that what your system uses as default will be compatible. Sometimes developers skip this mess & stick the copies that their app works with in the program's folder. Delete them & the app may or may not work properly -- if you want to risk it for <1.5 MB, go for it. Note that when I say work properly, I'm also talking about stuff like dropped frames & screwed up audio sync, so more than double clicking a .exe file to see if it opens.
"Go to the sqldrivers directory and delete them here as well."
"Here’s the kicker, if this completely works, do the same with all Tipard programs and for that matter, any folder named imageformats and sqldrivers and do the same thing."
Pretty much as above.
XPMan adds: "Windows keeps track of DLLs by using a counter in the registry by removing them in this way you disrupt this counter mechanism..."
And Jim said: "... You can put any number of instances in the ShareDLLs section and you will have no problems"
Long story short the idea is that if there's a file that's intended to be shared by more than one app &/or Windows, the dev adds a counter to the file name in a special section of the registry. Then during uninstall that number would decrease by one & if zero that file would be removed as well. Not everyone installs files as MS recommends, so no one removes them looking at that counter. At the same time, update an app & any file listed in the shared section of the registry can get upped by one as well. Or not. Quite a few apps never add anything to the shared file list at all. IF it sounds like there's a bit of anarchy going on, you're right. At any rate this is something that you don't need to overly concern yourself with.
"There’s possible savings here of 500,000 KB"
10 years ago that might have been a valid concern. 5 years ago, before external drives got cheap, you might have done something to save 500 MB if you were running a laptop with a small HDD. Nowadays it might be a concern only if you've got a cell with a shortage of available RAM. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but if you are worried about less space than it takes to fill a CD, you shouldn't even be looking at GOTD. Really.
