Delete C:\Windows\Installer\Razer? Over 13GB!

Hey there!

Thank you for sharing your issue with us here. My name is Michelle from the Razer Cortex technical support team. I am deligted to be of your assistahnce.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused you. Please kepp the “App‘ folder and “RazerInstaller.exe”, delete all other files. Please check the screenshot below:

Please let us know whether it helps. Thank you for your patience. 

Michelle

Hi Michell!

On my machine, RazerInstaller.exe exists in the App folder itself. Otherwise, there were 397 exe files there. Removing those took the C:\windows\installer\razer folder size from 13.3GB to 180mb. If I experience any issues with updating the Razer software, I’ll update this thread.  Thanks!

Thank you! Please feel free to let us know if you need further assistance. 

Michelle

My folder is at 5.6 GB. That’s insane. Why is this happening? Can you please release a fix so that Razer doesn’t take over my whole storage??

In the meantime I’ll try the steps above, but the fact that we would have to manually check it and manually delete the bloatware is really unprofessional.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused you. Our engineering team will find a way to improve this. 

Truly appreciate your feedback and comments. 

Michelle

They just seem to be update-files that Razer's update-method seems to refuse to clean up after itself. - I've also had this issue, having built up tens of Gigs of Razer-files over the span of a few years on the same Windows-installation, and wondering where my drive-space went. - I had to find out with one of those drive-space-analyzers, because these are basically "hidden" files. Or at least they're not in a location you tend to go and see, and they're also not put there with the user's permission.

And, no, removing those files (with the longer names) generally shouldn't cause any issues, because they're basically just update-files that Razer's updater runs, but doesn't remove when there are new ones. - You could leave the newest ones to be safe, as perhaps they might be used or something. But the user shouldn't be expected to manage these files. Razer should program it to clean up after itself if those files are old and won't be used anymore.
This is really bad practice and shouldn't happen. I can't believe this still happens, as I complained about it at least half a year ago and I know it had been noticed back then.

Thank you for sharing your concerns with us. Our engineering team will resolve it in the future. Thank you for your feedback. 

Michelle

8.6 GB (Razer) with a total of 12.2 GB (folder Installer) in my case - I will delete the whole folder and check what will happen.

5 min later: I deleted the whole folder (Razer) without ANY issues after the reboot.

There are some more Razer folders under Installer - I am wondering why a company does not use one folder (Razer) with sub-folders for each of their product (like (/Razer/Synapse, /Razer/Razer Central, /Razer/Razer Game Manager Service). That leaves the impression to me that the company’s developers are working very unstructured/unorganized (or the product owners can be trained a bit)

Please keep the below folder and installer marked as below, and delete all others. 

Michelle

Michelle-RazerCortexPC wrote:

garageman_0815 wrote:

8.6 GB (Razer) with a total of 12.2 GB (folder Installer) in my case - I will delete the whole folder and check what will happen.

Please keep the below folder and installer marked as below, and delete all others. 

 

Michelle

Allready deleted everything. And it is still working. To be honest: Every byte stored without the need wastes energy - 8 G times a 100 million Razer users equals about a 800 Petabyte (lets say 1 Exabyte). I will not calculate the energy consumption, but it will be a mass.

Razer should care better about our environment.

Hi @Michelle-RazerCortexPC, this thread is over 4 months old, and probably Razer has be known much longer about this issue since I’ve found files in that folder that were several years old.

Given the fact that a fix should be trivial, I have the feeling that Razer doesn’t really care about fixing it or they would have already. :-(

We deeply regret the inconvenience caused by this issue. However, considering the potential risks associated with deleting all the folders, our engineering team requires more time to conduct thorough testing. In the meantime, we kindly request that you manually delete the specific files mentioned earlier until we can provide a comprehensive resolution.

Michelle

I am sorry to say this but this is just sloppy installation handling. I am trying to figure out space to update to Windows 11 and by using a disk analyzer take a wild guess what took 10 GB of my already limited fast system drive. Please handle this.

They should have resolved it already. Please put this issue on higher priority.
This is basic functionality that should have been there already a long time.

Hi @VlaDeatHell and @SealBrowninfogeo454 ,

We deeply regret the inconvenience caused by the issue you have encountered. Please accept our sincere apologies for any disruptions you may have experienced. We want to assure you that we are actively working on resolving this problem in the upcoming major release of Razer Central.

In the meantime, we kindly request your assistance in addressing the issue on your end. To do so, please manually delete the files mentioned above. 

Once again, we apologize for any difficulties you have faced. We value your patience and understanding as we strive to provide you with an improved user experience.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team. We are here to assist you.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Michelle

I know this is a few months old now, but I’m still having this issue. My Razer installer folder is taking up 13.5 Gb..

And when trying to find the “RazerInstaller.exe” in the middle of all the other ones, there isn’t one just plainly named that..

Hey there!

Thank you for sharing your issue with us here. We assume the file was hidden by the system. Please follow the steps below to resolve this issue on your side:

1. Go to this directory directly: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\Razer\Installer
2. Click View > Show and deselect Hidden items
3. Delete all files and folders in the Installer folder. 
4. Download Razer Installer https://www.razer.com/cortex
5. Reinstall it. 
6. Check whether the Installer folder is still large.

Please let us know whether this works for you. 

Thank you for being patient.

Michelle

При запуске программы Razer Synapse 3 постоянно требует доступ к файлам, а потом пишет, что старт не получился .

homeCinnamonSatinhit894 wrote:

При запуске программы Razer Synapse 3 постоянно требует доступ к файлам, а потом пишет, что старт не получился .

Hey there!

Thank you for sharing your issue with us here. Please allow me to loop my peer @Razer.Aero in to help you out. @Razer.Aero Could you assist this friend with his concern? Thank you!

Michelle

There’s another folder C:\Windows\Installer\Razer Central which take lots of spaces. Which files in this folder can I delete to free the storage?

You can delete all files in that folder. We want to assure you that we are actively working on resolving this problem in the upcoming major release of Razer Central. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Michelle

You still did not fix it. Such a shame lads.

Hi @ACTFF498 ,

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused you. We will have a new major update soon. As it is a major update, it will need more time than other regular updates. Sincerely appreciate your understanding. Thank you!

Michelle

Really not understanding how it’s that difficult to include something similar to this PowerShell one-liner at the end of the install.  It only took about 45 seconds to write.  It’s quite apparent that this is not a priority and has been pushed into the depths of the backlog if a story has indeed ever been created for the development teams.  Please feel free to pass this fix along to the teams.  They may use it free of charge.

Get-ChildItem -Path "$($env:windir)\Installer\Razer\Installer" | Where-Object -FilterScript { $_.Name -notin @("App","RazerInstaller.exe") } | Remove-Item

Other users…..please note that it must be run from an administrative PowerShell session because it’s trying to manipulate files under the Windows directory.  You would normally get an elevation prompt if you attempted to remove the files manually.

I also had this same issue, my SSD had around 10gb in this folder and a good friend of mine cleaned 8gb from hers.

A crying shame that this is the new norm for companies; promise a fix then fail to deliver in months, sometimes even years.