Unclogging the hard drive

I got a surprise today while inspecting the Add & Remove programs feature of my computer to discover five Java updates listed, one of them occupying 137mb of space. My next-door tech friends tell me I only need the most recent update, so in effect Java has been leaving a whole lot of outdated material on my computer while they keep adding in the new. This prompted me to look more closely at what else is there. I admit that I am a software junkie, and like trying out programs. Often I delete them, but not always - being a hoarder, I think that one day I'll have a use for that. I did a quick total, to discover 120 items listed, totalling around 3.3 gigabytes. (Admittedly, a lot of these are system files, or essential add-ons such as a Flash player and video codecs.) The largest single item is Microsoft Office, which weighs in at 408mb, but OpenOffice is only marginally better at 349mb, and quite a number of others (particularly Adobe products) occupy around 100mb of real estate. Adobe Reader, for instance, is 88mb, whereas many alternative programs come in at a third of that.
I am now setting out on a major clean-out. If you have a mind to do the same, before you do, set up a System Restore point, so that if things go wrong, you can revert your system. (Access System Restore via Start/Help & Support.) To delete unwanted programs in XP, go Start/Settings/Control Panels/Add or Remove Programs.