About 1 month ago I ran the defrag program.it showed 30% memeory available. Recently ran same program and it showed 5% memory available. I think Microsoft Windows downloaded pathches or security updates taking up such space. How do I remove safely XP updates. I already removed rarely used programs.

You don't and shouldn't remove updates as this in NOT what is causing you issues.
You're problem arises from all the programs that you have loaded in the background on startup.
A great way of reducing your overhead and cleaning your system all in one is by using CCleaner.
It's a free App that removes junk files, cleans your registry and also can be used to remove any unneeded start up programs.

The official way of turning off strt up programs is:
Start > Run > Type MSCONFIG > Startyp Tab > UNcheck unneeded programs.

In my opinion CCleaner is a lot easier to use and less dangerous.

I think you are getting memory and hard drive space confused. If I was you I would leave those updates alone and transfer some of my data files [pic`s, videos, music] to a cd or get a second hard drive.

Hi Delite.
What size is your hard drive? I'm surprised you filled it up - unless it's a small drive... I bet you've got a laptop!

If you have a Desktop PC, buy a second hard drive; they are very cheap these days, and installing one yourself isn't too difficult - look up an "install hard drive" guide on Google.

If it's a laptop, you would have to copy all your important files onto the new drive and remove the old one - that's a more complicated job.

Like Savage wrote - a simpler alternative would be to copy most of your old files onto CD's/DVD's and then delete them from the hard drive.