Remove XP Update files?

[geilerts]

In my Windows XP directory, I have many sub-directories of this general type, all seeming to have been carrying an update of XP:

c:/windows/$NtUninstallQ81xxxxx/*.*

Is there a way they will be deleted by themselves during some future update, or is there a switch I can pull to delete them myself without uninstalling whatever they updated?

Thanks
Gary