Windows 10: Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 10

@Neophile Using a bootable Linux Mint on a usb stick, then open up its file manager Will delete those files. If all else fails. Just like cereberus suggested.

 

I had the same problem removing windows.old, 2 driver files which are "in use". (IntcDAud.sys in 2 maps)
Renaming and rebooting didn't work.
But if you disable the "Intel(R) Display Audio" driver, you can delete them, remove the complete windows.old map and then enable the driver.
Be sure to also empty the Recycle Bin before enabling of the driver, otherwise it will start using the file in the Recycle Bin.

 

Thank you for the three replies. As I said, the files were corrupted, so that after a chkdsk I could delete them because they were already owned by my profile. Anyway, it is always good to receive new ideas.
Cheers

 

Thanks for reporting back your results *Smile Glad you fixed the issue too. Mike...

 

After waiting the 30-day period to see if these files and folders would be cleaned up by WIN 10, I now see the files andfolders are still there.

So I followed the process in this tutorial.

Clean up came back and said the files are gone. But to my surprise not all of them. About 500 MB of files remained. The folders are still in place as well.

What I want to do is delete a folder and files marked "windows.old (1)", is not being removed by the clean up process. The files in this folder relate to the previous build of win 10 and the folder was created when I undertook the upgrade originally on this particular machine.

 

Well their is a very easy way to remove that folder using a program that one of our members created. Its Called Win10PESE here is the link. Just burn this app to a USB stick, keep it as this is a VERY good tool to have.
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

 

Once you burn this app, then boot to it, just use the built in file explorer, go to your C drive, then right click and delete. *Smile

 

Well, I cleaned up everything that was there except for the 500 MB of files that remained.
What I did notice though is for some reason, Edge stopped working on this particular PC for the first time in more than 30 days, at more or less the same time as I ran the steps in this tutorial. Could it be that somehow Edge was still using those old files? Is there a point in me posting what files have remained in the folder [windows.old/windows]?

best

Geoff

 

Hello Geoff, *Smile

Running Disk Cleanup shouldn't have affected Microsoft Edge. Please go ahead and create a new thread in the Browsers and Email forum area to see if a solution may be found.

 

I had trouble deleting windows.old but was finally successful using f14tomcat's direction on page 2 of this thread.

After getting rid of it I now have 2 c:\ folders, one in my PC and one isolated. Is there a simple way to get rid of this second one? It does not show in diskmgr.

More importantly, In one of your (Shawn) install tutes you said "after you update you can do a clean install". Where did I see that? I thinking about doing a clean install with all disks removed from system but the boot disk.

thanks

 

Are you looking for this tutorial ?
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...n-install.html

 

That's the one Mike, thanks.

But do you have any thoughts on two C:\'s