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Participant
June 10, 2025
Question

We have a few computers wtih Literally hundreds of 1gb update MSI files downloading constantly

  • June 10, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 3155 views

Windows 11 machines, the C:\Windows\Installer folder gets dozens of 1gb .msi files every month? They keep downloading to the folder and never disappear. Some machines have filled up over 300gb of these files hitting that folder. 

 

Any idea what might cause it? It's not a folder we can just willy nilly delete stuff from...any ideas? 

3 replies

Adobe Employee
February 4, 2026

We were able to resolve the issue by creating the following registry entries for Acrobat / Acrobat Reader. Once the registries are applied the next update for the App will remove the old Cache files

For Acrobat Reader (32-bit):
Registry path:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockdown

Create the following DWORD value:

  • Name: PatchCleanFlag

  • Value: 1

For Acrobat Reader (64-bit):
Registry path:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockdown

Create the following DWORD value:

  • Name: PatchCleanFlag

  • Value: 1

For Adobe Acrobat DC Pro:
Registry path:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockdown

Create the following DWORD value:

  • Name: PatchCleanFlag

  • Value: 1

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Community Expert
February 4, 2026

For the uninitiated, like myself, HKLM is listed as HKey_Local_Machine.

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
Participant
September 26, 2025

I have the same issues and just made a post. I removed a total of 8GB of used install files, (I uninstalled Acrobat and that is the amount the folder went down), and 30GB of old unused install files, mostly .msi. How do I know this, all signed as Adobe files. The whole system used around 2.5GB of install files for all the other programs installed on the computer. It appears there is a bug that no old files are being removed after an update. 38GB of used space is ridiclous. This needs to be addressed as the only solution is to manually delete files out of a directory that you should not have to touch. 

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 10, 2025

Is there an Adobe connection here? It appears to be a Microsoft question without other info.

BTW, I don't have an Installer folder in my C:\Windows folder. Are these from a company such as Dell that might have a bunch of their own utilities installed?

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
chad_9600Author
Participant
June 10, 2025

C:\Windows\Installer is hidden by default you have to type the address in order to ge there. I just now found that uninstalling acrobat and creative cloud from one of the less affected machines removed them...I have excitement. If a fresh reinstall helps that makes me feel a fair sight safer.  Thanks for your response!

 

Dave Creamer of IDEAS
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 10, 2025

OR you could just turn on View>Show>Hidden Items...

I have a lot of files there too, dating back a few years. My entire Installer folder is slightly less than 50 GB or 0.05 TB (out of a 2 TB m.2 drive), so I'll probably look into them more about it but I'm not going to worry about 50 GB. The .msi is a Microsoft Software Installer file and I believe related to OS updates and patches, not Adobe.

Here is an article on about them:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/msi-and-msp-files-they-are-nothing-but-the-cache/254b87e7-57fa-4a25-89f0-19bf189a072e

 

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)