Can I remove install.wim or c:\windows\installer?

These are software questions, not hardware issues.  I'm moving this to the software section.

Looking at two systems here, I don't have a C:\Apps\ folder at all, so I can't see how it would affect anything to remove it (although I'm not sure how it even got there).  However, it may have been placed there by Dell for some other reason - since they don't automatically give you a reinstall disk anymore, having the original install.wim may be useful for other things.

I  have C:\Windows\Installer\ on both, and it would appear to be a repository for installed program files, specifically the original installation file.

blogs.msdn.com/.../the-patch-cache-and-freeing-space.aspx

I might assume you have a new SSD that you are trying to pare down the size of your partition?  

I'm offsite at the moment and I can't remember if the C:\Apps directory was hidden or not.  Would you mind checking a couple of things.  One is doing a search for *.WIM on your C: drive and the other is type in c:\Apps in an Explorer window to see if it may be hidden on your system?

Thanks...

No, I got nothing when typing in C:\Apps (it was required to type in C:\Windows\Installer too, as it is not listed in the directory, but C:\Apps could not be found).  

I suspect this is specific to a Dell factory install.  My installs have all been deployments based on a fresh install image.

Searching C:\ for WIM files I get three instances of FirstUXRes.WIM ... on one PC but not the other.  That WIM is on a new install (no updates yet) and is in the \Software Distribution\Download\, \System32\oobe, and \winsxs folders.  I don't have time to mount it to see what's in it.

Thanks, I appreciate your efforts...  

BTW, I don't have an SSD.  I just want to minimize the amount of stuff when I do system backups.  I think I'll do a full backup and then try deleting the directory with WIM.  If it dies, I'll restore it back...

Thanks again...