Windows 10: Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 10

How to: Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 10

What is Windows.old folder and how to delete Windows.old folder in Windows 10


If you performed a refresh of Windows 10, upgrade to Windows 10, or a custom install of Windows 10 on the same partition as the previous Windows installation without doing a clean install, then you will have a C:\Windows.old folder in your new installation afterwards. The Windows.old folder contains a copy of the previous Windows installation, and can be quite large in size.

The previous Windows version contents in the Windows.old folder will automatically be deleted in 10 days after you upgraded by default.

If you already had a C:\Windows.old folder in the installation that you performed a refresh, upgrade install, or a custom install on, then it will be renamed to say C:\Windows.old.000, C:\Windows.old.001, etc... (older previous installations) in addition to the latest C:\Windows.old folder. The most recent previous installation will always be in the C:\Windows.old folder.

This tutorial will show you how to manually delete the Windows.old and $Windows.~BT folders that has been placed in the root directory of the Windows drive when you do a refresh or upgrade install of Windows 10.

You must be an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

Be sure to copy any files that you may want out of the Windows.old folder before you delete it. Once deleted, they are gone.

*Warning If you delete the Windows.old folder, you will no longer be able to go back to the previous version of Windows.

*tip If the Windows.old folder was unable to be removed using either option below, then take ownership of the Windows.old folder and all contents, and try again.

• Owner of Files and Folders - Change in Windows 10
• Take Ownership - Add to Context Menu in Windows 10

CONTENTS:

• Option One: Delete "Windows.old" and "$Windows.~BT" Folders in Disk Cleanup
• Option Two: Delete "Windows.old" Folder in Elevated Command Prompt
• Option Three: Delete "Windows.old" Folder in a Command Prompt at Boot
• Option Four: (recommended) Delete "Windows.old" and "$Windows.~BT" Folders in Storage Settings
• Option Five: (recommended) Delete "Windows.old" and "$Windows.~BT" Folders in Storage Sense Settings

EXAMPLE: Windows.old Folder









OPTION ONE [/i] Delete "Windows.old" and "$Windows.~BT" Folders in Disk Cleanup
1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type cleanmgr, and click/tap on OK to open Disk Cleanup.

2. If you have more than one drive or partition on your PC, then select the Windows C: drive, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



3. Click/tap on the Clean up system files button. (see screenshot below)



4. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

5. Repeat step 2 above.

6. Check the Previous Windows installation(s) box, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



7. Click/tap on Delete Files to confirm. (see screenshot below)

8. When Disk Cleanup finishes, the C:\Windows.old folder will be deleted.








OPTION TWO [/i] Delete "Windows.old" Folder in Elevated Command Prompt
1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. Copy and paste the commands below into the elevated command prompt one at a time, and press Enter after each command. (see screenshot below)

*note If you had another say windows.old.(1) folder that you also wanted to delete, then you could repeat these commands substituting that name instead of windows.old to also delete it.
takeown /F "C:\Windows.old" /A /R /D Y

icacls "C:\Windows.old" /grant *S-1-5-32-544:F /T /C /Q

RD /S /Q "C:\Windows.old"
3. When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.







OPTION THREE [/i] Delete "Windows.old" Folder in a Command Prompt at Boot
1. Boot to a command prompt at boot.

2. To Verify the Windows 10 Drive Letter at Boot
*note The Windows 10 drive letter may not always be C: at boot like it is while Windows is started, so be sure to verify its drive letter before doing the command in step 3 below for this to work.
A) Type diskpart into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

B) Type list volume into the command prompt, and press Enter.

C) From the listed volumes, look for and verify the drive letter of your Windows 10 drive.

D) In the command prompt, type exit, and press Enter.





3. To Delete the "Windows.old" Folder
A) Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

*note Be sure to substitute D in the command below with the actual drive letter of your Windows 7 drive as displayed from step 2 above instead. If you had another say windows.old.(1) folder that you also want to delete, then you could repeat this command substituting that name instead of Windows.old to also delete it.
*Arrow RD /S /Q "D:\Windows.old"
B) Close

the command prompt.




4. Click/tap on the Continue button to restart the computer and continue to Windows 10. (see screenshot below)








OPTION FOUR [/i] Delete "Windows.old" and "$Windows.~BT" Folders in Storage Settings
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon.

2. Click/tap on Storage on the left side, and click/tap on Temporary files under the Local Disk C: drive under Storage on the right side. (see screenshot below)

*note If you do not see Temporary files, click/tap on the Show more categories link to see it.



3. Check the Previous Windows installation(s) box, uncheck anything you don't want deleted, and click/tap on the Remove files button when ready. (see screenshot below)



4. When finished, you can close Settings if you like.





OPTION FIVE [/i] Delete "Windows.old" and "$Windows.~BT" Folders in Storage Sense Settings

*note This option is only available starting with Windows 10 build 16226.
1. Open Settings, and click/tap on the System icon.

2. Click/tap on Storage on the left side, and click/tap on the Configure Storage Sense or run it now link under Storage on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3. Check the Delete previous versions of Windows box at the bottom, uncheck anything you don't want deleted, and click/tap on the Clean now button. (see screenshots below)





4. When finished, you can close Settings if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Delete a Folder in Windows 10
• How to Open and Use Disk Cleanup in Windows 10
• How to Free Up Drive Space in Windows 10
• What is $SysReset folder and how to delete $SysReset folder in Windows 10
• How to Delete Windows10Upgrade Folder in Windows 10
• How to Remove Temporary Files in Windows 10
• How to Go Back to Previous Version of Windows in Windows 10
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• What is $GetCurrent folder and how to delete $GetCurrent folder in Windows 10
• How to Analyze Component Store (WinSxS folder) in Windows 10
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:)

 

Windows.old won't delete

I'm trying to delete my Windows.old folder. I followed all the steps in the link

Delete Windows.old folder in Windows 10

But I can't get the blasted folder to delete. Is there any other way to delete this folder?

 

windows.old and start menu

I reinstaled windows 10 to get rid of windows.old folder. windows.old pissed me off. seems like Windows 10 uses some drivers from windovs.old folder and deleting creates problems (disk cleanup is not deleting windows.old).

 

This tutorial did not originally work when I tried it on the windows.old folder that was generated by the Win 10 9860 update. My fault was not bothering to scroll down and checking the box to delete the "previous windows install" box. I need to learn to read more and click less.

 

No worries John. We all do it from time to time. *Smile

 

I put Cleanmgr on my desktop in the first version. I use it daily as I also do in W-7.

I have found that a reboot after using Cleanmgr it does help at time. It all seem to depend on what is being removed.

 

None of these options work on my system. Running VirtualBox with build 10049, installed on top of fresh 10041 (took over a day since I didn't allocate enough CPUs and RAM to the VM and every language on Earth was installed), and windows.old just seems bulletproof.

The "Previous Windows Installation(s) checkbox isn't present.

Tried removing "read only" attribute (everything is protected), tried del windows.old at cmd prompt w/admin rights, diskpart shows nothing...

Sure would be nice to get that 5+ GB back!

 

Did you do this step? It should work.

 

Several times. That checkbox doesn't appear...

 

I
saw somewhere that the program called ccleaner by pinfore would clean up old windows system files

 

Can you post, please, the exact way you are running cleanmgr?

 

Love that program! Always one of the first programs I install on new systems and one that I run regularly. Alas, in this case all it can get back is about 30MB.

 

From the Administrative Tools menu after searching for it in the Start screen. Not only is there no checkbox, but now I notice no "Cleanup System Files" button either.

When I "Run" cleanmgr it the button appears, as does the checkbox; over 5GB freed! Cleanmgr must have some "better" rights when run that way.

Maybe an update to the steps might be prudent, and many thanks..

--Al--

 

Here's a simple way:

1. Go to My PC
2. Right-click the C: drive to get the context menu
3. Left-click Properties
4. Left-click the "Disk Cleanup" box

It will start calculating and display the Disk Cleanup window, with some items checked.

5. Left-click "Cleanup system files"

It will recalculate and display the Disk Cleanup window again.

Check off any items you want to delete and click OK.
Answer "Yes" to the confirmation screen.

It will display a cleaning-up progress screen.

All done!

Note: the "More Options" tab at the top of "Disk Cleanup" is best left alone for now. *Smile

 

Hello Al,

Please post some screenshots showing step by step what you see versus what's in the tutorial to see what the issue may be. *Smile

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