This directory is creating folders with what appears to be random names. Our recordings and archiving are not saved in this directory, but this keeps creating folders and has over 50GB of space now. What is this for, and can it be deleted without causing an issue? I have not been able to find documentation about it online.
Any help appreciated.
When you run any of our product installers, the installation package is extracted to a new random folder name under [C:\Program](file:C:/Program) Files (x86)\Common Files\VideoOS\ and the VideoOS.Installer.Bootstrapper.exe is launched from there which is the entry point for product installation or removal.
If you track down one of the registry keys for a Milestone component under HKL[M:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall,](file:M:/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Uninstall,) I believe the uninstall strings reference whatever random folder the product was installed from. And if that folder is missing, that product will fail to uninstall normally.
For many years these folders were not automatically cleaned up at the end of the uninstall so they did accumulate. I could be mistaken but I was under the impression the folders should no longer accumulate unless something is going wrong with the uninstall.
Technically you can absolutely delete the whole Common Files\VideoOS folder with no consequences until you want to uninstall something. If you never plan to uninstall because when the time comes, you’ll be migrating to a new OS anyway, then it’s no big deal.
If you were in a situation where you needed to uninstall and the original install source is missing, you could run the original installer with the —extract=path\to\missing\random\folder and the installer contents will be extracted, then the uninstall should work correctly.
50GB of installation packages means you probably have at least ~25-30 folders in there? I’d wager that if you’ve done an upgrade in the last year, you could delete everything in there more than a year old with few, if any consequences ever.
Thank you for the helpful information!