Windows 10: How to remove Windows.Old folder

I had forgotten the Disk cleanup would take care of it. So I changed ownership and replaced privileges and was able to delete 99.999999% of everything, But there are a couple of files that state they are in use and cannot be deleted. I then checked Disk cleanup and the option is no longer there. I rebooted in safe mode and still same issue. I can rename the files and folders and even move them to a different folder but still cannot delete them because Windows thinks they are in use. Any help would be much appreciated,

:)

 

Removing Windows.old folder

I recently had to reinstall my OS (don't ask). Once I did there were files that I couldn't delete. Basically SecuROM files. Anyway long story short I found this workaround that I wanted to share with my fellow newbs. This will work for any file and works like a charm. Just follow the directions. *Toast :toast:
Note: there is no space between "Administrators: (F)" I just had to but one in because it kept giving me an "unhappy face"

When installing Windows Vista, Windows stores any existing installation of Windows on the install partition inside a hidden folder called windows.old. This folder could take up a large amount of disk space.

Note: Please check the contents of the windows.old folder before deleting it to make sure there are no files stored there that you may wish to keep.

Deleting the window.old folder using the disk cleanup wizard
Click start
Type: disk cleanup
Press enter
Select "Files from all users on this computer"
Follow the rest of the instructions listed on the wizard and select the option to delete the windows.old folder
Deleting the windows.old folder manually
1) Open an elevated command prompt

Click start
Type: cmd
right-click it under programs
click Run As Administrator
2) Take ownership


Change the directory to the windows.old folder (e.g. cd c:\windows.old)
Type: takeown /F . /A /R /D Y > NUL
3) grant yourself permission

Type: icacls . /grant:r Administrators: (F) /T /L /Q
4) Delete everything

Make sure you close any explorer or command windows that are looking at or inside the windows.old folder (except for the command window you are using). If you don't, you will receive an error while performing this step.

Type: cd ..
Type: rmdir /S /Q windows.old

 

Quick Access not searching Pictures folder

Summary, that last suggestion didn't work.

• I moved the pictures to another folder temporarily.

• Then I tried to remove the Pictures folder with option one at Add or Remove Folders from This PC in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials. Even after rebooting, the Pictures folder remained.
• So I tried using option two. Same thing: reboot >> Pictures folder still there.

• Since there were no troubleshooting steps for this scenario, just for the heck of it, I ran through the restore steps. Copied some pictures into the Pictures folder, ran a Quick Access search and initial problem remains: Searching all of QA doesn't find any files in Pictures folder, running search on just the Pictures folder does. I want to run a global search and find matching files in any/all of the Documents, Music, Videos, and Pictures folders.

That article dates from 2015 and I'm guessing is out of date. I hope it didn't create potential future problems in my registry.

Bottom line: I'm still looking for a fix.

 

How do I safely remove the unwanted $Windows.~BT folder and it's contents?

Hi Barry,

I suggest that you follow the steps from this knowledge base article :

How to remove the Windows.old folder

Let us know if this helped you to remove the installation files.