How to delete windows old

Delete the Windows.old folder on Windows 10 [HOW TO]

Windows 10 and some previous versions of Windows sometimes create a folder called Windows.old.

This folder is usually created when you install a new version of Windows, and today we’re going to explain what does this folder do and how to remove it from Windows 10.

What is the Windows.old folder and can I delete it?

When you install a new version of Windows, such as Windows 10 for example, your system automatically moves your older installation to Windows.old folder.

With this folder available you can easily restore the previous version of Windows if the new one isn’t working properly for you.

In addition, this folder works as a backup, so even if the installation process fails for some reason, your PC can use Windows.old folder to restore the previous version of Windows.

You should also know that you can roll back to the previous version of Windows 10 days after its installation, and after that period ends, Windows.old folder will be automatically deleted from your system.

As you can see, Windows.old folder can be extremely useful since it allows you to restore the previous version of Windows, but many users want to delete this folder since it takes a lot of space on their hard drive.

Keep in mind that by deleting this folder you won’t be able to revert back to the older version of Windows in case there’s any major problem.

Since this folder can take 30GB or more of your hard drive space, today we’re going to show you how to safely remove it from your PC.

Can I delete my Windows old folder? You can easily remove it through Disk Cleanup. Keep in mind that deleting the folder will leave you without a restore point. Another way to remove it is by using Command Prompt or a Linux Live CD.

For more info on how to do that, check the guide below.

How to remove Windows.old folder from Windows 10:

Solution 1 – Use Disk Cleanup tool

Windows 10 comes with a useful little tool called Disk Cleanup that allows you to quickly free up space on your hard drive. This application will scan your hard drive partition for old or temporary files and allow you to remove them easily with a single click.

This tool also allows you to remove Windows.old folder and you can do that by following these steps:

Another way to run Disk Cleanup is to check your hard drive partition properties from This PC. To do that, follow these steps:

Solution 2 – Through Command Prompt

Usually, the best way to delete Windows.old folder is to use the Disk Cleanup tool. If you can’t delete it by using Disk Cleanup, you might want to consider using Command Prompt.

Keep in mind that Disk Cleanup is the simplest and the safest solution and you should always use it first. To delete Windows.old with Command Prompt, do the following:

Few users reported that they needed to use two extra commands before they can remove Windows.old folder from their PC.

According to them, they had to use takeown /F C:Windows.old /A /R and icacls C:Windows.old /Grant Administrators:F /inheritance:e /T commands to take ownership over the Windows.old folder and remove it.

You can also remove Windows.old folder by using Command Prompt at boot. To do that, you need to start Command Prompt by following these steps:

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Now we need to determine what is your drive letter. If you use Command Prompt during the boot, it’s rather possible that your drive letter will change, so you need to use diskpart tool to find it. You can do that by following these steps:

As we already mentioned, using Disk Cleanup is the safest and simplest way to remove Windows.old folder from your PC, so you should use it always over Command Prompt.

If you decide to use Command Prompt from Windows 10, you’ll have to change the attributes of Windows.old folder.

That can sometimes cause certain issues so it might be better that you use Command Prompt during the boot since it doesn’t require that you change the attributes of the Windows.old folder.

Solution 3 – Use CCleaner

CCleaner is a useful tool that is designed to remove old and temporary files from your PC. Some users use it to remove Windows.old folder, and if you use CCleaner you can remove Windows.old folder by following these steps:

Solution 4 – Change the security permissions

If you try to delete Windows.old folder manually you’ll probably see an error message saying that you lack the necessary privileges to delete this folder. You can fix this problem by following these steps:

After changing the permissions you’ll be able to delete Windows.old folder without any problems.

We have to mention that changing the permissions of Windows.old folder can sometimes cause issues with your Windows 10 installation, so you might want to consider using Disk Cleanup tool instead.

Solution 5 – Disable certain devices from Device Manager

According to users, they were unable to remove Windows.old folder due to some driver files that were still in use by their PC. To find and remove those files you’ll need to do the following:

Apparently this issue appears on Surface devices, but if you experience this problem on your PC, feel free to try this solution.

Solution 6 – Use Linux Live CD

If you can’t delete Windows.old folder from your PC, you might want to consider using a Linux Live CD. Windows.old folder is protected by your system, and in order to delete it you need to change certain privileges.

Obtaining the necessary privileges might not be easy for non-advanced users, and if you want to delete Windows.old folder without changing your privileges, you might want to consider using a Linux Live CD.

Simply download any version of Linux and create a bootable media. After that, boot to your PC from a bootable media. After Linux starts, locate and delete Windows.old folder.

After deleting the folder, remove the bootable media and restart your PC.

As you can see, Windows.old folder is extremely useful because it allows you to restore your PC after an upgrade in case anything goes wrong.

Using Windows.old folder you can restore your documents and some other files even with the new version of Windows installed.

As we already mentioned, Windows.old folder will be stored on your hard drive only for 10 days, so if you want to revert, be sure to do it quickly.

If you’re concerned about your storage space, you can delete the Windows.old folder by using Disk Cleanup tool or by following any other solution from this article.

Hope that now you can understand better what Windows.old folder is and whether to delete it or not in Windows 10. If you have any more questions, leave them in the comments section below.

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How To Delete Windows.old Folder In Windows 10

Last Updated on September 25, 2020 by admin 17 Comments

Windows.old folder gets created when you upgrade your Windows installation to a newer version of Windows operating system, when you install Windows on an existing version of Windows without formatting the drive, or when you perform a Refresh operation.

Why Windows.old folder is used?

If you have Windows.old folder under the root of your Windows 10 installed drive, it’s either because you have upgraded from Windows 7/8 to Windows 10 or performed a clean installation of Windows 10 without formatting the drive containing previous Windows installation files.

The Windows.old folder contains all files and apps from the previous Windows installation. The Windows installer uses this folder when you want to downgrade to the earlier version of Windows or when the installation of a newer version of Windows fails to complete.

Is it safe to delete the Windows.old folder?

Yes, it’s safe to delete the Windows.old folder unless you have plans to downgrade to the previous version.

Why remove the Windows.older folder?

Since the Windows.old folder contains all Windows operating system files and installed apps, it takes a significant amount of disk space. In some cases, Windows.old folder size might go up to 10 to 15 GB, depending on the total size of the previous Windows installation.

Users who have installed Windows on a smaller SSD drive or users who don’t have allocated a significant amount of disk space to the Windows installed drive might want to delete or remove Windows.old folder to gain some valuable disk space.

But Windows.old folder can’t be quickly deleted by right-clicking on it and then clicking the Delete button.

So how to delete Windows.old folder to free up disk space in Windows 10? There are a couple of ways out there to delete Windows.old folder. You can either use the native Disk Cleanup tool or use third-party free tools like CCleaner for the job.

Follow the instructions in one of the below-mentioned methods to get rid of Windows.old folder and free up GBs of disk space in Windows 10.

WARNING: Don’t delete Windows.old folder if you have plans to revert to the previous version of Windows. That is if you have upgraded your Windows 7/8 installation to Windows 10 and now planning to downgrade to Windows 7/8 again for some reason, don’t even think of deleting Windows.old folder as downgrade operation can’t be performed without the Windows.old folder.

Method 1 of 3

Delete Windows.old folder in Windows 10 using Disk Cleanup

Step 1: Open up This PC. Right-click on the drive where Windows is installed and click Properties.

Step 2: Under the General tab, click the small Disk Cleanup button to run the same. And if the Disk Cleanup button is not appearing as shown in the picture below, please refer to our Disk cleanup missing from drive properties in Windows 10 guide to restore the same.

Step 3: Once the Disk Cleanup utility shows the following dialog box, click the Clean up system files button to begin the scan.

Step 4: Finally, when you see the following dialog, look for the entry named Previous Windows installation(s) or Windows.old folder. Check Previous Windows installation files or Windows.old folder, and then click OK button to delete the Windows.old folder.

The Windows.old folder should no longer appear under the root of Windows installed drive.

Method 2 of 3

Removing Windows.old folder using CCleaner

If the Disk Cleanup tool isn’t listing Windows.old folder, you could take the help of popular CCleaner software to delete it.

Step 1: Download and install CCleaner software if it is not already installed on your PC. You can download the latest version of CCleaner for Windows 10 from here.

Step 2: Run CCleaner, click on the Cleaner tile in the sidebar, and uncheck all options except Old Windows Installation on the right side under Windows and Applications if you are interested in deleting only Windows.old folder.

Step 3: Click the Analyze button to begin the scan. Once done you’ll see Old Windows Installation and its size on the right-side. Click Run cleaner button to delete the Windows.old folder from your Windows 10 PC.

Method 3 of 3

Delete Windows.old folder in Windows 10 using Command Prompt

Step 1: Open elevated Command Prompt. To do so, type CMD in the taskbar search box or Start search box and then simultaneously press Ctrl+Shift+Enter keys to open Command Prompt as administrator. Click the Yes button when you see the UAC dialog.

Step 2: In the Command Prompt, paste the following command and then press Enter key to delete Windows.old folder.

RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%\windows.old

If you’re getting any error, make sure that you launched the Command Prompt as administrator. Good luck!

How To Delete Windows.old in Windows 10 (Is it Safe?)

Table of Contents

Introduction

If you have upgraded to a new version of Windows 10, you end up with a folder named Windows.old under C:\.

Now comes the next question, is it safe to delete the Windows.old folder?

In this blog post, I explain the Windows.old folder and if it’s safe to delete the folder.

What is the Windows.old folder?

This folder contains the contents from the previously installed Operating System. It is used to restore to a previous version of Windows 10.

The Windows.old folder is created after an update to a new version of Windows 10.

The Windows.old folder is automatically deleted after ten days if you have not made any changes to it locally or via a Group Policy.

Here you can see the Recovery area in the Settings app in Windows 10:

Is it safe to delete the Windows.old folder in Windows 10?

If you are sure you do not wish to restore to a previous version of Windows 10, it is safe to remove the Windows.old directory.

The Windows.old folder may take 50+ GB of storage, so it’s advisable to delete it if you want to free up disk space.

The folder contains temporary files that you can use to restore the previous version of Windows 10. If you are not planning to restore your operating system, these are not essential files.

How to restore a previous version of Windows 10 using Windows.old

Note that there is a time window when it’s possible to restore your machine. In my case, I can’t restore, since I upgraded my PC more than 10 days ago. The amount of time here can be changed via Group Policy.

How to delete the Windows.old folder

Here I describe a few different ways of removing the Windows.old directory:

Delete Windows.old using the Disk Cleanup Tool

Open the File Explorer in Windows, Right-click and press Properties.

Select Disk Cleanup.

To remove the Windows.old folder, you need to click the Clean up system files button. Because the folder is considered to be a system folder, and requires elevation, you might receive a UAC prompt. Press Yes at the prompt.

5. Select Previous Windows installation(s).

6. Select Yes at the confirmation prompt.

Delete Windows.old using the command prompt

To be able to delete the Windows.old folder, we need to do the following:

You can accomplish the above actions using the following sequence:

How to delete ‘Windows.old’ — the folder keeping your old version of Windows — to free up more than 20 GB of space on your PC

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You might have noticed a folder on your computer called «Windows.old.»

If you did, you probably also noticed two other things: It is using a lot of hard drive space (potentially as much as two dozen gigabytes) and you can’t delete it using your keyboard’s Delete key.

Since it has «old» in its filename, it seems unnecessary – is there a way to get rid of it?

If you’ve recently upgraded to a new version of Windows, the Windows.old folder contains your previous installation of Windows, which can be used to roll back to the previous configuration if you want to.

If you don’t plan to go back – and few people do – you can remove it and reclaim the space.

Also, keep in mind that if you do nothing, Windows will automatically discard that folder 30 days after the upgrade. But if you want to delete it right now, here is how.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

How to delete the Windows.old folder on your computer

1. In the Start menu search box, type «cleanup» and then click «Disk Cleanup» in the results.

2. If you see the Drive Selection dialog box, make sure that the C: drive is selected, and click «OK.»

3. Click «Clean up system files.»

4. You may need to choose drive C: a second time and click «OK.» Then you’ll need to wait while the program scans your drive.

5. Select the checkbox for «Previous Windows installations» from the list of files to delete.

Solved: Can’t Remove Windows.old Folder in Windows 11/10

Something You Need to Know About Windows.old Folder

Before you start deleting Windows.old folder on your PC, here is something that we think you should know about this folder.

What Is Windows.old?

Windows.old folder is generated by the Windows operating system when you upgrade from one version of Windows to another. The Windows.old folder isn’t something new with Windows 10, which starts with Windows Vista.

The Windows.old folder contains all the files and data from your previous Windows installation, including Windows system files, user accounts’ settings, User Profile, and User Folder files, etc.

You can apply it to restore Windows to the previous version if you don’t like the new version. You can also dig into the Windows.old folder to find a specific file that wasn’t properly copied to your new Windows installation.

Where is the Windows.old Folder?

So you may wonder where is the Windows.old folder saved on the computer and how to delete it right? Usually, Windows.old folder is saved in C: drive under the Windows folder after Windows system upgrade as shown below:

It takes up a huge space as nearly the same size as your C: drive before the Windows upgrade. This explains why so many people notice that their C drive gets full quickly after a Windows update.

Is It Safe to Delete Windows.old Folder?

So is it safe to delete the Windows.old folder? Yes. If you decide to stay with the new Windows system and all your files are safe on the new OS, you can delete it from your PC so as to free up the disk space.

Why Can’t I Remove Windows.old Folder?

According to the Microsoft Windows forum and some tech forums, users complain that they can’t remove Windows.old folder as Windows reports that the file not found or target is not a valid file or directory.

Why is that? Here are two main reasons that explain why you can’t delete Windows.old folder directly from your C: drive:

1. The Windows.old folder has been removed by Windows OS

In order to save disk space, Windows Operating System is designed to delete the Windows.old folder automatically after you upgrade:

2. Delete Windows.old needs administrator permission

Although Windows.old folder is accessible for you to check and view the saved files. But it requires administrator permission from the System to make changes to this folder. Therefore, if you don’t have permission, you can’t directly delete Windows.old from C: drive.

Applies to: Resolve «Can’t delete Windows.old folder» issue with three effective methods, no data loss.

#1. Create Backup of Windows.old Folder

Before taking the steps below to delete the Windows.old folder, you can create a backup of the Windows.old in case that you may want to perform a system restore or restore a single file from the folder.

You can either copy Windows.old folder to an external hard drive or to back Windows.old folder with EaseUS free backup software in only three simple steps as listed below:

#2. Gain Administrator Permission from System

The other important thing to make sure that you can delete Windows.old folder successfully is to check whether you are logging in to Windows OS as administrator.

If you have several user accounts on your computer, switch to login your computer with your administrator account:

Step 1. Click the Windows icon and click your username at the top.

Step 2. Select Administrator on the list, click to switch to it.

Step 3. Sign in with the password of your administrator account.

Method 1. Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 11/10 Using Use Disk Cleanup

Windows.old folder cannot just directly delete by hitting the delete key and you may try to use the Disk Cleanup tool in Windows to remove this folder from your PC:

Method 2. Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 10 Using Temporary File Settings

The other method that you can try is to use Windows Temporary File Settings to remove the Windows.old folder on your PC. Here are the steps:

Step 1. Open Settings by typing settings in the Search, then click on it.

Step 2. Select System > Storage > This PC and then scroll down the list and choose Temporary files.

Step 3. Under Remove temporary files, check Previous Windows Installation then choose to «Remove files».

Then Windows.old folder will be deleted in Windows 10 without any obstacles.

Method 3. Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 10 Using Storage Sense Settings

Windows 10 Storage Sense settings can also help you remove Windows.old folder on your PC. Follow the steps to delete it now:

Step 1. Open Settings by right-clicking the Windows icon and select «Settings».

Step 2. Go to System, click «Storage», then click «Change how we free up space automatically» under Storage Sense.

Step 3. Check «Delete the previous version of Windows» and click «Clean now».

Once you complete the steps, the Windows.old folder will no longer exist on your computer.

Here is a quick tutorial that has SOLVED ‘can’t delete Windows.old’ error in Windows 10. Scroll down to check the #complete solutions# with detailed guidelines.

Video source: YouTube; Created by Sele Training.

2 Bonus Tips: Extend System Drive After Deleting Windows.old

Besides deleting Windows.old folder using the above 3 methods, you can also try other methods to extend system C drive space. If this is what you want, try the following 2 quick tips to gain space and extend your C drive immediately:

#1. Extend C Drive using Free Partition Manager Software

Free partition manager software provided by EaseUS software can efficiently extend the system C drive with its Resize/Move feature.

Windows 11/10/8/7 100% Secure

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Free up unallocated space for C drive.

If there is no unallocated space on the system disk, right-click on a partition next to the C: drive and select «Resize/Move».
Drag left panel of the partition to shrink and leave unallocated space behind the system C: drive and click «OK».

Step 2: Increase C drive space.

1. Right-click on C: drive and select «Resize/Move».

2. Drag the system partition end into unallocated space so to add space to C: drive.

Step 3: Keep all changes to extend C: drive.

Click the «Execute Operation» and click «Apply» to keep all changes so to extend the system C: drive.

#2. Clean Up Large File on System Drive

Step 1. Download and install EaseUS Partition Master Suite.

Windows 11/10/8/7 100% Secure

Step 2. Click PC Cleaner and install EaseUS CleanGinus. Then, click «Cleanup» and click «Scan» to start cleaning up the system and make your PC as good as new.

Step 3. The software will scanning all over your computer to find idle data files that take a huge amount of disk space, you can select useless large files, system junk files and Windows invalid entries and click «Clean» to start system cleanup process.

Step 4. When the scan is complete, click «Done» to finish cleaning system junk files.

Conclusion and Windows.old FAQS

On this page, we explained what is Windows.old folder, what you can do with Windows.old folder, the default location of this folder, and offered three practical methods to help you fix «can’t remove Windows.old folder» issue on Windows 10.

These methods also can be applied to delete this folder on other older Windows operating systems, like Windows 8.1/8/7, etc. Here, we also collected some top concerned questions and left brief answers to help you out. If you are having the same concerns, check and find the answers:

1. How do I manually delete Windows.old?

Based on the provided methods on this page, you will need to first log in to your computer as an administrator.

And then you can use Windows Temporary file settings, Windows disk cleanup, or Windows Storage Sense settings to manually delete Windows.old folder from your computer. For a detailed guide, refer to the detailed steps listed in Method 1, Method 2, and Method 3.

2. How do I restore system from Windows.old?

To restore system from the Windows.old folder, you can navigate to Settings > Update & security > Recovery. Then click «Get started» under «Go back to Windows 7» or «Go back to Windows8.1».

Note that this option is only available for 10 days or 1 month after you upgrade.

3. How do I restore files from Windows.old?

There are three ways to get back the Windows.old folder. You can manually or automatically recover the Windows.old folder. Or restore files from Windows.old folder using EaseUS file recovery software in just three steps.

For a detailed guide, you may refer to Windows.old Restore for a guide.

4. Will deleting Windows.old cause problems?

Usually, deleting Windows.old folder or files on your computer will not do any damage on your PC.

But if the Windows update failed to keep all your files or you lost files after the Windows update, you can try to bring the lost files from your Windows old by rolling back to the previous version of Windows.

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About the Author

Daisy is the Senior editor of the writing team for EaseUS. She has been working in EaseUS for over ten years, starting from a technical writer to a team leader of the content group. As a professional author for over 10 years, she writes a lot to help people overcome their tech troubles.