Can I delete the folders that Windows updates created in my root folder?

I notice a few folders like so in the root of my Windows 7 computer:

C:\>dir /b
1258193cc8f2dcf7dadb1e
fb586dbf00697c58228fdbfc
...

Upon opening them, I notice they are hotfixes and patches downloaded by the Windows update program. They each have a Setup.exe, some DLLs, some bitmaps for the set-up or installer program, and some resource files and string tables (in XML), presumably all used by the installer program.

Now, the thing I am not sure about is whether:

1. They are a temporary dump of the hotfix that the Windows update utility downloaded, unzipped them at this temporary location, applied the fix and then forgot to delete them, or




2. They are the actual hotfix itself.

Can I delete them? They're annoying and are just taking up too much space on my machine.

Answer

In short; yes. If your windows update have all finished, then they can be deleted.

There are some Windows built-in disk cleanup tools that will remove redundant update files.