How to delete the Windows.old folder on Windows 10

When you upgrade your computer to a new version of Windows 10, or you install a preview build, the installation process saves a copy of the previous version in the «Windows.old» folder.

This is part of the safety mechanism in case the upgrade process goes wrong. If the installation fails for any reason, the system can use the Windows.old folder to undo the changes. Also, if the upgrade completes successfully, the backup copy of the previous version will be kept to provide the option to rollback in the case the new installation is causing issues.

Although this is a handy feature, if your computer is working correctly after the upgrade, you can safely delete the Windows.old folder to reclaim gigabytes of space.

In this Windows 10 guide, we’ll walk you through the different ways that you can get rid of the Windows.old folder to free up several gigabytes of space to store more important files.

Update November 29, 2018: We’ve updated this article with the latest information for the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

How to delete the Windows.old folder using Storage sense settings

The easiest method to delete the Windows.old folder from your device is to use the Storage sense with these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on Storage.

Under the «Storage sense» section, click the Change how we free up space automatically option.

Under the «Free up space now» section, check the Delete previous version of Windows option.

Click the Clean now button.

Once you’ve completed the steps, the folder with the previous installation of Windows 10 will no longer be available on your device.

How to delete the Windows.old folder using Temporary files settings

Alternatively, using the Settings app, you can delete the Windows.old folder using the Temporary files settings with these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on Storage.

Under the «Storage sense» section, click the Free up space now option.

Check the Previous Windows installation(s) option.

(Optional) Clear the default selected options if you only want to remove the Windows.old folder to free up space.

Click the Remove files button.

After completing the steps, the folder with the previous installation of Windows 10 will be removed freeing up 14GB to 20GB of storage space on your primary hard drive.

How to delete the Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup

You can also delete the Windows.old folder using the legacy Disk Cleanup tool with these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Click on This PC from the left pane.

Under the «Devices and drives» section, right-click the drive with the Windows 10 installation (usually the C drive) and select the Properties option.

In the «General» tab, click the Disk Cleanup button.

Click the Cleanup system files button.

Check the Previous Windows installation(s) option.

(Optional) Clear the default selected options if you only want to remove the Windows.old folder to free up space.

Important: Starting with the October 2018 Update, Windows 10 is deprecating Disk Cleanup in favor of Storage sense, but it adds an option to delete all the contents from the Downloads folder. If you’re using this option, and you have important files in the Downloads folder, make sure to clear this option.

Click the OK button.

Click the Delete Files button to confirm the deletion.

Click the Yes button to confirm the warning.

Once you’ve completed the steps, the Windows.old folder will be removed from your device.

Wrapping things up

While it’s safe to delete the Windows.old folder, if you remove its contents, you will no longer be able to use the recovery options to rollback to the previous version of Windows 10. If you delete the folder, and then you want to rollback, you’ll need to perform a clean installation with the desire version.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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How to Delete the Windows.old folder in Windows 10 [Previous versions of Windows]

Windows Operating System upgrades, as well as the version updates, would leave plenty of files behind in the system drive. This is because Windows keeps the files from the previous versions of Windows in a separate folder, in case the user wants to roll back the major update (or OS upgrade).

For instance, the Windows 10 feature updates give you 10 days to roll back to the previous build or version if needed. After 10 days, the option to go back wouldn’t be available as the respective folders are cleared automatically. If you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8, the previous Windows installation folder ( Windows.old ) is retained for 30 days.

After the stipulated time (10 days), the corresponding folders will be wiped out automatically by Windows. These are the folders that would be emptied automatically:

• $GetCurrent
• $Windows.

BT

Windows.old

Windows10Upgrade (this applies if you used the upgrade assistant tool)

If Windows doesn’t automatically clear those folders, you can use Disk Cleanup or Storage Settings to remove Windows.old and the other folders. This article explains how to delete the Windows.old folder using 3 different ways.

Clearing the Windows.old (Previous Windows versions) folder in Windows 10

How to Delete the Windows.old folder (Previous versions of Windows) in Windows 10

After Installing a major update or Feature update, you can immediately free Up 20 GB+ disk space if you don’t plan to roll back the update. Typically, the amount of disk space freed up might be anywhere between 14 GB to 25 GB depending upon the bitness of your Windows installation and the number of programs installed on the system drive.

Using one of the following methods to delete the Windows.old folder on your system drive.

Method 1: How to delete Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup

To delete the Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup, follow these steps:

1. Start Disk Cleanup by running cleanmgr.exe via the Run dialog.
2. Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) doesn’t list the Previous Windows installation option if you’re not running it as administrator. So, you’ll need to elevate it by clicking Clean up system files button in the Disk Cleanup window.

After installing the Fall Creators Update, I could free up 27.4 GB of disk space by clearing the Previous Windows installation(s) files using Disk Cleanup.

If Disk Cleanup doesn’t list the Previous Windows installation(s) entry, or it throws up an error when cleaning up, use Windows 10’s Storage Settings (as in Method 2 below) as an alternative.

Method 2: Clearing Windows.old Using Storage Settings App

Storage Settings (or Storage Sense) helps you clean up temporary files, empty the recycle bin and the downloads folder at regular intervals. Other than that, the Storage Sense also lets you delete the Previous Windows installation (“Previous versions of Windows” files) easily.

1. Click Start → Settings → System → Storage
   
2. Click Configure Storage Sense or run it now
   
3. Scroll down to the Free up space now section.
4. Select the Delete previous versions of Windows checkbox, and click Clean now. Description: These let your PC go back to a previous version of Windows. We delete them automatically in 10 days.

The clean up starts immediately. You won’t be asked for a confirmation.

Editor’s note: Previous version(s) of Windows files occupies at least 25 GB of space. In the above screenshot, it shows 3.22 GB because I’ve manually cleared stuff from the Windows.old folder prior to running the Storage settings app. So in your case, space freed up will be much higher. In my test system where it showed 27 GB used by Previous version of Windows (upgraded from Windows 7 x64), it took around 10 minutes for the Storage settings app to assess and clear the folder.

Method 3: How to delete Windows.old using Command Prompt

Deleting Windows.old using Disk Cleanup or Storage Settings sounds very easy, but they fail to clear the folder in some situations. If they don’t work in your case, you should be able to delete the Windows.old folder manually with the required folder permissions.

1. Right-click Start, click Command Prompt (Admin)
2. Type the following commands and press ENTER after each command:

The above command is to take ownership of Windows.old , its subfolders, and all the files recursively. It also assigns full control Permissions for the Administrators group. So, the process might take some time to complete.
Then, run the following command to remove the Windows.old folder completely:

In case the third command fails to accomplish the task (due to Cortana’s LocalState.. folder issue or similar), use the following command instead, which uses the DOS device path:

Now, the option to Go back to an earlier build should be dimmed out.

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:

1. Press Windows Key + S and enter disk. Select Disk Cleanup from the menu.
   
2. When Disk Cleanup tool opens you’ll need to select which drive you want to clean. Select the drive where Windows 10 is installed and click OK.
   
3. Disk Cleanup tool will now scan your PC for old and temporary files. This process might take a minute or two depending on the size of your partition.
   
4. Check if Previous Windows installation(s) option is available. If it is, check it and click OK. You should see a confirmation message available. Select Delete Files and wait until the previous version of Windows is removed.
   
5. Optional: If Previous Windows installation(s) option isn’t available for you, click Clean up system files button and wait for the scan to complete. After that, select Previous Windows installation(s) and follow the instructions from previous step.
   

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

1. Open This PC.
2. Locate your primary hard drive partition and right click it. Choose Properties from the menu.
   
3. Go to the General tab and click the Disk Cleanup button.
   
4. Now follow the instructions described in the steps above.

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:

1. In the Windows search box type cmd, right-click the first result and select Run as administrator.
2. When Command Prompt opens, enter the following lines:
   • attrib -r -a -s -h C:Windows.old /S /D
   • RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%windows.old
3. After the commands are executed, close Command Prompt and check if the Windows.old folder is removed.

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:

1. Click the Start button.
2. Click the Power button, hold the Shift key and choose the Restart option.
   
3. When your PC restarts, choose Troubleshoot > Advanced options.
4. A list of options will be available. Select Command Prompt.

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:

1. Enter diskpart in Command Prompt and press Enter. We have to warn you that diskpart is a powerful tool, so use extra caution while using it.
2. Now enter list volume.
3. List of all available partitions will now appear. Now you need to locate your drive letter. The easiest way to do that is to compare the size of available partitions. After you find the desired partition, check the Ltr column and memorize its letter. In most cases it should be D, but it might be different on your PC.
4. Enter exit to quit diskpart tool.
5. Now enter RD /S /Q “D:Windows.old” command and press Enter to run it. Keep in mind that you need to use the correct letter that you got in Step 3. In our case that was D, but be sure to double check it on your PC.
6. After running the aforementioned command, Windows.old folder will be removed from your PC. Now you just need to close Command Prompt and start Windows 10 normally.

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:

1. Start CCleaner and click the Cleaner title.
2. Select only Old Windows Installation on Windows and Applications sections. You should find this option in Advanced list.
3. Now click the Analyze button to start the scan.
4. You should now see how much space does the Windows.old folder take. Click Run Cleaner button and wait until CCleaner removes this folder from your PC.

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:

1. Locate Windows.old folder, right click it and choose Properties.
2. Navigate to the Security tab and click the Advanced button.
3. Locate the Owner section and click Change.
   
4. Select User or Group window will now appear. In Enter the object name to select field enter Users and click Check Names. Click OK.
   
5. Owner section will now be changed. Check Replace owner on subcontainers and objects and Replace all child permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object.
   
6. Click Apply and OK to save changes.
7. If you get any security warnings just select Yes.

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:

1. Locate the driver files that can’t be deleted in Windows.old directory. Usually that are SurfaceAccessoryDevice.sys, SurfaceCapacitiveHomeButton.sys, SurfaceDisplayCalibration.sys and SurfacePenDriver.sys. Keep in mind that these driver files might be different on your PC.
2. After you find the problematic drivers, you’ll need to disable the corresponding devices from Device Manager. To do that, press Windows Key + Xand choose Device Manager from the list.
   
3. When Device Manager opens, look for the devices that are related to those drivers. After you find the problematic device, right click it and choose Disable.
   
4. After disabling all the problematic devices, try to delete Windows.old again.
5. After Windows.old folder is removed, enable the disabled devices again.

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.