how to safely uninstall windows updates?

[coolmandingo]

i am trying to remove the Q814033 update that slows down XP and when I am about to uninstall it using the add/remove program in control panel windows tells me that several of my programs may not work correctly after unsinstalling this patch, and the list of programs is just about every game and application on my computer. is every program really at risk of not working? is it safe to uninstall windows updates? thanks

[NooNoo]

This is the kb article about that update

As you can see it is a particular dll file - if after uninstalling it your computer is a little weird run the system file checker - start, run, type in SFC and click ok - this will check the system files and replace the file from the cd.

Has your machine actually suffered a slow down? If it has, you should also turn off system restore during this operation so that system restore doesn't put back the dll you are trying to uninstall.

If your machine hasn't showed any slow down and you are uninstalling it just in case... I wouldn't bother uninstalling it.

[coolmandingo]

yeah, my computer sometimes takes a really long time just to open programs such as IE, windows media player, instant messenger programs, sometimes it just freezes for 30 seconds or so just opening any kind of menu or just surfing the internet, it doesnt really matter what i am doing it just slows down sometimes, thats why i would like to uninstall all these updates that i stupidly installed that i could never even tell any difference that they made any things better,

also i was wondering if i did a repair install of XP over my current install if all those updates would be removed and I can start anew........ thanks for the help man.

[NooNoo]

Yes an install over the top, in most cases will overwrite hotfixes.