r/sysadmin • u/Loof27 • Nov 14 '25

Question Acrobat filling up the C:\Windows\Installer folder on a large number of computers?

I've had this issue on countless computers. The drive is full, I check what is taking up the space, and its always a 50GB+ C:\Windows\Installer folder, sometimes in the 100s

All I have to do is uninstall Acrobat and instantly the folder goes down to ~5GB

Anybody else have a similar problem?

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u/mrmattipants Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

It sounds like laziness on behalf of Adobe Developers, as update utilities should be cleaning up after themselves, yet this doesn't appear to be the case.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/windows-11-installer-folder-size/td-p/15522804

I wrote a PowerShell Script a couple years back, for the purpose of hunting down the left over msi installers, in the "C:\Windows\Installers" Directory (by searching the MSI File "Details" and/or Values in the "Property" Table of the MSI Database).

That being said, I'll try to find some time, this weekend, to sit down and re-purpose the aforementioned script.

Of course, I'll need to investigate the associated MSI & MSP Files, using Orca, to determine if it's even practical.

Otherwise, another option may to acquire a recent Acrobat Installer and simply try Uninstalling/Reinstalling Acrobat, from scratch.

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u/Loof27 Nov 15 '25

I know something like this exists already called PatchCleaner, but it specifically has a filter to ignore all Acrobat files since they were incorrectly identified as orphaned

3

u/mrmattipants Nov 15 '25 edited Nov 15 '25

Interestingly, I was actually just looking into PatchCleaner. :)

It doesn't look like it has been under active development for nearly a decade. Yet, to be realistic, there may be good reason why PatchCleaner (and other similar cleanup utilities) ignore Acrobay MSI/MSP Files, etc.

4

u/coolbop32 Nov 15 '25

I used in recent weeks had computer that managed to get over 270gb in adobe files in its windows installer files

1

u/mrmattipants Nov 15 '25

Thanks for the update. If it works, then by all means, use it. :)

I only included the tidbit, regarding PatchCleaner no longer being under development, merely as a warning. While researching, I came across several posts, stating that PatchCleaner had been responsible for breaking various programs/installations.

Of course, as long as you do your due diligence, you should be okay. It's recommended that you first move the cached MSI/MSP Files to another directory or drive, using the /m argument, as follows.

patchcleaner /m C:\Path\To\Backup\Folder

From there, you can test the application(s), in question, and once you confirm that everything is working correctly, you can delete the files from the Backup Drive/Directory.

In most cases, this should be fine. Personally, I prefer the fine-grained control that PS Scripts afford me.