Have you upgraded from Windows 7/8.1 to Windows 10? Or from Windows 10 Creators Update to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update? The upgrade process has created a Windows.old folder on local disk C:, which contains several gigabytes of data, and is impossible to delete with conventional methods. Here are all the ways to delete Windows.old and reclaim upwards of 17 gigabytes of space on our hard drive.
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Before you attempt to delete Windows.old on your system, it's always a good idea to create a full Windows backup, in case anything goes wrong. There is little risk in deleting Windows.old, but it's better to be on the safe side.
What is the Windows.old folder?
Windows.old isn't an essential system folder. It only appears at the root of the local disk C: if we did a complete Windows upgrade from an older version, instead of formatting the hard drive and doing a clean installation.
The upgrade could be between entirely different Windows versions, such as from Windows Vista to Windows 7, or from Windows 7/8.1 to Windows 10.
However, we will also get a Windows.old folder every time we upgrade between different versions of Windows 10, for example from the Anniversary Update to the Creators Update, and from the Creators Upgrade to the Fall Creators Upgrade.
Inside Windows.old, we will find documents and folders from the previous installation. These include files from the PerfLogs, Program Files, Users, and Windows folders, among others.
On Windows 7, the Windows.old is a "just in case" folder. The system doesn't use the old files in any way. It just keeps them, in case we need them.
On Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10, the contents of this folder are used to uninstall Windows 10 and revert to the previous operating system.
On the recent Windows 10 builds, we have a 14-day period to roll back to the previous version. After the 14 days, the system will automatically delete Windows.old, or at least the part of it used for the rollback.
In any case, Windows.old can be quite large. Small Windows.old folders start at more than 2GB.
Depending on the previous installation, however, the Windows.old folder could be larger than 17 gigabytes. For a 120GB SSD, that's 14% of its capacity, then and there.
What's worse, if we want to delete Windows.old, we can't just drag it to the recycle bin. Even after providing administrator permission...
...we get a "You require permission from SYSTEM to make changes."
You know what?
The easy way to delete Windows.old
The official way to delete Windows.old is through Microsoft's integrated disk cleanup utility.
The fastest way to access Disk Cleanup on any version of Windows is through Windows search.
There, we go to the "Clean up system files" option.
The disk cleanup utility will reload. Among the options, we will find the "Previous Windows installation(s)."
Checking it, clicking OK, and confirming our action will delete Windows.old.
That's it. Windows.old is gone, never to be seen again. At least until the next Windows upgrade.
The Windows10Upgrade folder is also useless, but we can regularly delete it, the SYSTEM won't object to that (how nice of it!). We just confirm the administrator permission, and it's outta here.
Delete Windows.old the hardcore way. Show the SYSTEM who's Boss
Disk cleanup is neat and fast. But, it is our PC, and we want to delete Windows.old our way, dammit!
So, we will take control of this folder, delete it by hand, and stick it to the man. Because WE don't need "permission" from any SYSTEM. The SYSTEM needs permission from US.
Caution! We can use the following method on any system folder, and if we misuse it, it will cripple our Windows Installation. So, you know, with great power...
First off, we right-click the Windows.old folder, and select "Properties."
On the security tab, we select "Advanced."
We click on "Change." Whistling the intro to the "Wind of change" is optional, but encouraged.
At the "Enter the object name to select" we type users, and click OK. This is how we give power to the people.
Then, with the SYSTEM overthrown, we check both checkboxes and click OK.
The SYSTEM asks us if we want full control. Hell yeah, we do, thank you very much.
Depending on the number of files within Windows.old, the revolution will take a couple of seconds, a minute at most.
Depending on the Windows version, the SYSTEM might try to change our minds. But a "yes" is a "yes."
Once the "Advanced Security Settings" window closes, we just right-click and delete Windows.old
No SYSTEM permission needed. We tell the SYSTEM "Delete," and it says, "do you want to permanently delete this folder?"
The process is much slower than through the disk cleanup utility. But more satisfactory, too.
The SYSTEM might ask our permission to delete some system file or other. Just check "Do this for all current items."
And that's how we delete Windows.old and show the SYSTEM who's Boss.
Any questions?
Did you have any trouble to delete Windows.old?
If anything on this guide didn't work as described, and you weren't able to delete Windows.old on your PC, leave us a comment.
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very useful article
about showing the system who is the boss,there is an alternative and much easier way by using a .reg file
I 'm not aware of those files. Do you manually edit them for a specific folder every time? Because, if so, it sounds like more work than checking a couple of checkboxes ;-)
You do it just once in the windows folder and you take ownership forever.In some cases you may need to repeat it in a specific folder but this is not the usual process.You know sometimes windows act by themselves without nobody can explain the reason why :D
Does not work unfortunately. At least not with later versions of windows.
fuck you system!
sorry for trashtalk
The system cleanup would say it was deleting the older versions, but would never actually do it. Your manual method worked like a charm. Thanks for saving my 32GB built-in SSD!
how to delete those stupid large folders "$WINDOWS.~BT" and "$WINDOWS.~WS"????
The manual method to get the file permissions will work for those folders.
You are my hero!
This was perfect. Thank you. My computer (WIndows 10) decided it needed to back up 389GB of data DAILY(!_!) What? Why?
So, in addition to arguing with Windows 10 about manually backing up my shit versus etting the computer do it for me, there was also a Windows.old file that wouldn't let me delete if. From the last build of Win 10 maybe? Anyway, so I followed this guide jamming to your musical addition in order to free up enough HDD and SSD space to continue using my computer. Thanks a lot.
Screw you system!!! =P
I just tried this. It worked better than anything I tried previously but it still left nearly 4G of an initial 18G of files. Initially I made the mistake of putting windows.old in the recycle bin. Apparently some files were deleted, but obviously a very limited amount. When I tried method 1 to delete the folder, it didn't ever show up as a previous installation, so that wasn't a possibility. After I did your "Boss" method but did not have complete success, I tried it again. What I get is a message saying, "You require permission from Users to make changes to this folder".If it makes any difference, the troubling files are located under the winsxs folder. Any other ideas? Thanks for helping.
Sorry, I just realized I failed to see and follow the all important step "click on the Clean up system files button" on Disc Cleanup. Turns out, everything worked great! Outstanding job, Angelos!
Glad I helped, Tim.
Help! Once I get to the advanced area, it looks totally different than your picture. I have tried several things but I keep getting an access denied message. Now what?
Thanks!!! This saved the day!!! Loved your writing too! "So, we will take control of this folder, delete it by hand, and stick it to the man. Because we don't need "permission" from any SYSTEM. The SYSTEM needs permission from us."
This helped me out so much. I was having the hardest time trying to figure out why this 7gb file wouldn't go away. I had originally changed the ownership directly to my user, but to know avail. This guide helped me with the idea of setting "Users" in general as the owner, and it worked like as charm! And any guide with a SOAD song embedded into the page is worth a read, so thanks for that as well.
Somehow the "delete previous versions" was missing from Disk Cleanup. I tried many other methods--including a command prompt method--none worked.
This method works--change the owner--and everything deletes smooth as a bell. Thanks!!!
thanx alot :)
After certain stage the process is stopped saying ''the folder is open or being used''! Now what? pls info
Have you tried rebooting the system and trying again?
First, thanks for answering. I did but no use either.
You get this error message on the Disk Cleanup app, or did you try to manually delete the folder?
I did both and also take owner steps but the result is the same.
No problems. I always remove it with disk cleanup.
Thank you, I used the disk cleanup to get rid of the previous version of windows left over after updating to v1607, but the disk cleanup left the folder windows.old and some empty subfolders that I couldn't delete not even with elevated cmd, it was giving me 'access denied'. I only managed to finally get rid of it after taking ownership of the folder.
Hi, Angelos!
I've followed your instructions yet I still couldn't delete the "windows.old".
Please check photo....
Cool man! Thanks
The "who's the boss" part is the only way I could remove windows.old. The disk cleanup method everyone suggests does not get rid of it. THANK YOUUUU.
Oddly enough, my Desktop was fine, but my laptop messages told me the Windows.old file was no longer stored in the C: drive. Did some digging on my own and cannot figure out where the files were stored. Looks like the Windows.old was originally set up on 11/8/2015. The file on my C: drive is dated December 2015. Searched by date, file name, etc. but cannot find anything. However, I cannot delete the Windows.old file either, even though it appears to be empty. Trying to see if Hidden Files is what happened? Any suggestions? Thanks!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/
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My windows.old did not come from a previous install. This PC is brand new came with Win10. Windows.old appeared when I changed my PC's name; I think? I just bought this PC and during setup it linked me to Windows Live Account. Then crap it was linked to my other household PC and all kinds of weird. I never got to name it like back in the day. So of course my family members download all their games before I get home from work to rename it. I also had trouble with OneDrive trying to disable/unsync OneDrive after syncing my folders. All my folders disappeared in the attempt and the other PC that I did want OneDrive for shows this PC's folders and files instead of it's own. Everything is borked to heck and all my stuff went missing. Some of the kid's game files ended up in the cloud and no where we could find on the PC's. My point is my windows.old folder IS NOT A PREV VERSION of windows and thus DOES NOT APPEAR FOR CLEANUP in disk cleaner. : [
What happens if when you go to finally delete windows.old and the computer says you need permission from users??
i did both methods and none of them work, i did the first option and it says i need permission from users
Can you upload a screenshot of the error?
Deleted windows old using windows disk cleanup, then browse into your stubborn "windows old" folder look what inside, its usualy connected to your computer driver, Uninstall every driver software that link to "windows old". Ex: Nvidia driver (issue after upgrade to win 10 build 1607). Then install again your driver. Problem solved. Cheerrr
Perfect! Great deal, thank you guys!
good shit
I have 5 Windows.old, Windows.old(x) (x=1-4) directories I can't get rid of, even after taking ownership. I keep getting a 0x80004005 error. Each directory has a subdirectory of the form: C:Windows.old(4)Users(my username)AppDataLocalPackagesMicrosoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewyLocalState.. which comes back as "location unavailable." Any ideas how to get rid of this mess?
Hey Andrew,
A solution that should definitely work should be booting from a linux live DVD or USB. No need to install linux, just boot to the live environment, open the Windows drive, and you should be able to delete any and all Windows.old folders.
You can check the procedure to create a Linux Live medium here https://www.pcsteps.com/1461-create-linux-installation-usb-dvd/