Compressing Windows XP "old files"

[hazeman]

It started with the pondering of MSOCache. Office placed this resilient folder on the partition I've dubbed "Games." I knew that it was for Office, but for what other potential uses I was unsure. I did some research and my final destination was unavoidably MICROSOFT! On the help page for MSO, there were instructions for using Disk Cleanup as the ONLY alternative to deleting this ever growing (now over 530MB) hidden folder. So, I ran Disk Cleanup to see what else it would find. On my games drive alone, it found nearly 5GB! of "old files." Then I ran it on my boot partition and found over that amount, almost 5.2GB! of "old files." What are the downfalls to compressing these illusive files that are more than 50 days untouched? More importantly, with the boot drive, is this going to have any potential performance dropping effects?

I appreciate your time.
Thanks.

 

[bsobel]

MSOCache is an install backup image for office, it's used if you add/remove features or do a repair install.

As for 'old' files, their just that files you havent touched in 50 or more days. There is little if any risk to compressing them. They are compressed on a file by file basis, so your question about the boot drive is no since if they where needed to boot they would have been used in the last 50 days...