So, what are all these files..?

[Dr.Gibbs]

I just wanted to clean house and I was wondering which of these folders I can safely delete (both the folder and ALL the contents):

\My Documents\SysInfo\ (Just has something called SysInfo.txt that seems to list my specs)
\My Documents\Templates\ (Has a bunch of templates I never use, but it's all hidden)
\My Documents\Annotations\ (I never use Reader, but 'm afraid to delete the folder)
\Windows\AvantGo\ (I don't use AvantGo)
\Windows\messaging\ (What's this for??)
\Windows\Shortcut\ (I don't use Home if that's what these are for)

And what are these files..? I think they must be from the CF WiFi card. Are they okay to delete?

\mdmlog2.txt
\mdmlog3.txt

Can I safely remove these things like I can in WinXP? They're getting to be quite large.

\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\index.dat
\Windows\Cookies\index.dat

And, finally, what in the world does this shortcut do?

\Windows\StartUp\poutlook.lnk

Thanks in advance :)

[commoved]

I am really hesitant to recommend you delete anything -- one never knows for sure the consequences, especially on somebody else's Ax. But I would point out that if you get into too much trouble, you can always do a hard reset, then synch your Outlook info and files, then re-install your aps (it goes pretty quck, because most aps are already istalled on your PC -- just go to Active Synch / Add/remove programs, and add, add, add.)

You can also restore from a prior backup, but the former solution leaves a lot of junk out of your RAM and out of your registry.

[Dr.Gibbs]

I guess no one really knows what those are, then..? I mean, they're all from Windows or Dell... nothing there involves any third party apps.

They are windows files. For some reason microsoft doesn't store these files where people can't get to them. Be very careful what you delete you'll be very sorry... Pocket PC 2002 isn't like windows xp. If you delete a file, there is no protection. Avantgo is part of the OS so you can't really remove it, if you remove those folders in My Documents, Pocket PC 2002 will regenerate them.

Believe me don't delete ANYTHING in the windows directory. I had a user who though she could delete these files and nothing would happen, well let me tell you, it took a hard reset to fit it.

Why do these files bother you? Its not like they take up much space...

[Mike C]

I use the clean-up utility from BatteryPack to get rid of temp files and cookies safely.
The Startup\poutlook link starts all your PIM functions (hence the location in Startup).
The Shortcuts links are all very small, and provide your Start menu icons, items in the Settings\System screen, etc.
These are only links ... measured in bytes, not Kbytes.

Make a backup before experimenting, and keep notes to help you recover.

[Dr.Gibbs]

Well, I decided to find out for myself... and here's what I discovered:

\My Documents\SysInfo\ This is created every time you open the About or System Information dialogues. You can delete it, but it will just come back again. The fact that it's stored in My Documents is pretty irritating... but I guess you can't ask for everything, right?
\My Documents\Templates\ The folder is needed, but the files inside can be deleted. Pocket Word, Excel, and Notes all work perfectly well without the template files. The only effect deleting these will have is making the template lists in these programs blank. In fact, you can make your own templates if you want, and they will show up in the drop down box in any of those programs. DO NOT delete the folder.
\My Documents\Annotations\ This entire folder and all its contents can be deleted, and it won't come back unless you start Microsoft Reader. This is where your notes and bookmarks and so on are stored when you read an eBook. If you never use Reader, you can safely delete everything. The folder is basically temporary and can be deleted even if you DO use Reader, but you will lose all of your notes and things associated with your books. Why this is in My Documents is beyond me, since none of the files Reader creates can be used or viewed in any other program.
\Windows\AvantGo\ Everything but the version folder is safe to delete if you don't use AvantGo. I'm not sure what the version folder is, but the other folders are created as you use AvantGo, so they don't neccessarily have to stay there. If you never use AvantGo, you can probably delete the whole folder, but I left the version folder on my device simply because it came with Windows.
\Windows\messaging\ I never experimented with this one, and I don't have any idea what it might be for.
\Windows\Shortcut\ These are for the Home program and can be deleted if you don't use Home. This is simply where the Home program gets its list of shortcuts from. If you never use it, then you should probably get rid of these. They aren't used by Windows for the Start Menu or the Settings screens, and they don't contain any icons... they're simply shortcuts to files on your device. Home will still work fine if this folder is empty, but it will appear as an empty folder.

\mdmlog2.txt
\mdmlog3.txt These are log files for your WiFi or other type of connection. They're meant to be temporary and can be deleted, but they will reappear the next time you try to make a connection. I would just leave them alone, as they are saved over and never really build up to being anything significant.

\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\index.dat
\Windows\Cookies\index.dat
\Windows\History\index.dat These can be deleted as long as Internet Explorer isn't running (if it IS running, they are being used). IE will recreate these files when it's started. If you want to get rid of these, you must also delete your cookies, history, and temporary Internet files. These index files can get very large over time, and should probably be deleted on occassion to save space.

\Windows\StartUp\poutlook.lnk I never experimented with this one, either.

I managed to clean up my folders and gain about half a meg of storage. These files are currently all sitting in a temporary folder, where they will remain until I finally decide to delete them permanently. I can't guarentee how safe any of that stuff is to delete quite yet, but I moved all of it without any ill effects, so I don't see how it would ever cause a problem.

You learn something new every day, I guess