When a user upgrades their operating system to Windows 10, the Windows.old folder appears on their hard drive. However, this directory often occupies valuable memory - its volume is not limited to several tens of gigabytes. This raises the question of whether it is possible to remove Windows.old from the system disk and avoid undesirable consequences.
Windows.old: what is this folder
The Windows.old directory appears exactly after the OS upgrade. You can consider this a manifestation of Microsoft's concern for the user: the folder stores all the data on the previous version of the system so that you can return to it at any moment. It often happens that the new OS for some reason does not suit the user. In other words, the Windows.old directory is needed to restore the previous system. It is stored in memory for 30 days, after which Win 10 deletes the folder itself, although not always entirely.
Windows folder.old appears on system drive after windows updates and kept there for a month.
In this directory you can find various files from the version of the OS that was on the computer before - they can be of value to the user. Windows.old includes the following sections:
- Windows, which contains system files;
- Documents and Settings, where all documents and settings of the previous OS are stored;
- Program Files with program files previously installed on this PC.
Is it possible to delete Windows.old in Win 10
If you have worked with the "top ten" and realized that the OS suits you completely and there are no rollbacks to previous version is not required, and also there are no files or documents of interest left in the directory, then it can be safely deleted. In the end, a dozen or two released gigabytes have not hurt anyone yet.
How to remove Windows.old in Win 10
If you have already tried to simply demolish the Windows.old directory from the PC in the traditional way, then you have had time to be disappointed: when you press the traditional Delete key in such cases, nothing happens. Sometimes the Shift + Del key combination works, but this is more of an exception than the rule. To get rid of this folder, there are several quite simple ways, including standard Windows tools.
Video: The two easiest methods to remove Windows.old
Through Disk Cleanup
The Windows.old directory can usually be removed without problems with standard tool Win 10 Disk Cleanup. To do this, you need to take the following steps:
- Simultaneously press the Win + R buttons and in the line that appears, enter the command "cleanmgr".
- The Disk Cleanup window will appear on the screen. At the bottom left, select "Clean up system files".
- In the new window, find the section "Previous Windows installation”, mark it with a tick and click “OK”, confirming your actions.
- The system will show a warning that you can delete important system data - in our case, we do not pay attention to this. After a short period of time, the Windows.old directory will be permanently erased from the PC.
Photo gallery: step by step instructions for deleting the Windows.old folder using Disk Cleanup
Press the Win + R keys and type the command "cleanmgr" In the utility window, select "Clean up system files" and click "OK" Check the box "Previous Windows installations" and click "OK" Wait until the system deletes the Windows.old folder
Through the command line
You can also delete the Windows.old directory using the command line. To do this, you need to perform several actions:
To delete the Windows.old folder, you need to command line type "RD /S /Q C:\windows.old" and press Enter Through the "Task Scheduler"
This method sometimes works if the previous two did not lead to the desired result. The sequence of actions is as follows:
- Launch "Task Scheduler": In Windows 10, the easiest way to do this is through the search in the Start menu. It can also be opened through the "Control Panel" (section "System and Security", then at the bottom in the "Administration" item, select "Task Schedule"). Similar to calling the "Control Panel" by clicking right click mouse, you can select the line "Computer Management" in the drop-down menu. Task Scheduler will appear in the Utilities section.
- In the "Scheduler" library, you need to open the Windows directory in the Microsoft branch and select the Setup subsection.
- Click SetupCleanupTask. In the default settings, the Windows.old folder will be deleted one month from the date of the system upgrade. Change the due date for the task, and the Scheduler will delete Windows.old at the time you need.
Photo gallery: step-by-step instructions for removing Windows.old using the Windows Task Scheduler
"Task Scheduler" in Windows 10 can be found in the "Control Panel" in the "System and Security" section ("Administrative Tools") In the "Scheduler" library, open the folders in sequence: Microsoft - Windows - Setup In the SetupCleanupTask section, change the date the task was performed to delete the folder Windows.old to required
Using third party software
Many people prefer to use CCleaner and its analogues to erase "unremovable" directories like Windows.old. This the right approach, since the utility is able to quickly cope with such a task. If you do not have CCleaner installed, then you should download its installation file to your PC from the developer's website and install the program.
To remove Windows.old through the CCleaner application, in the "Cleaning" section, select the "Advanced" category and check the box next to " Old installation Windows" ("Old Windows Installation") After launching CCleaner, you need to find the “Other” tab, go to the “Old Windows Installation” line, tick it and start cleaning. The question of whether to delete the "Event Logs" can be answered in the affirmative. The program will quickly perform the necessary actions and issue a report with complete list files that have been deleted. The amount of freed memory will also be indicated.
What to do if the Windows.old directory is not deleted
As a rule, the Windows.old directory is completely erased from the system drive using one of the methods listed above. When using the command line method, make sure all characters are typed correctly and there are no extra spaces in the commands.
When the contents of the Windows.old directory are of no interest to you, you can safely delete it. This folder is erased from the PC in several ways if you need free disk space - the directory does take up a substantial amount of space. Please note: if you need any files from a previous version of Windows, take appropriate measures to save them, because the system itself will delete Windows.old after a month.
Even now, when we have large 1.2 TB hard drives at our disposal, we may lack free space. Especially the decrease in free disk space will be noticed by those who updated from Windows7 /8.1 to Windows10 . This is due to the appeared Windows.old folder, which occupies several tens of GB. Why the Windows.old folder is needed, whether it can be deleted and how to do it, will be discussed in this article.
The Windows.old folder stores the files and settings of your previous system. It is necessary for rollback (rollback) from Windows 10 to a previous version of Windows .
Attention!!! If the Windows.old folder is deleted, it will not be possible to return the system to the previous OS (Windows7 / 8.1). This folder should only be deleted if you are sure that you will use Windows 10 in the future.
There are several ways to delete the Windows.old folder:
I propose to analyze each of the methods.
Remove Windows.old with Disk Cleanup.
For this method, you need to run the built-in Windows tool to remove unnecessary things - "Disk Cleanup". To launch it, press the key combination "Win" + "R" and in the Run line enter the command cleanmgr.
The "Disk Cleanup" window will open, click on the "Clean up system files" button on it.
In the Delete the following files field, check the box next to "Previous Windows installations" and click "OK".
To confirm the deletion, click "Delete Files" in the next window.
Within a few minutes, Windows.old will be removed.
As a result, on drive C, the Windows.old folder will be deleted.
Removing Windows.old using the command line.
For this method, run a command prompt with administrator privileges. To do this, right-click on "Start" and select "Command Prompt (Admin)".
takeown /F C:\Windows.old\* /R /A
cacls C:\Windows.old\*.* /T /grant<Ваша учетная запись>:F , For example cacls C:\Windows.old\*.* /T /grant site:F
rmdir /S /Q C:\Windows.old\
You will end up deleting the Windows.old folder.
How to remove Windows.old using CCleaner.
First of all, it is necessary download CCleaner . Then unzip the archive and run the file of the corresponding version of your OS, if you have Windows x64 then CCleaner64, if 32 bit Windows - CCleaner.
In the program, you can uncheck all the boxes, and put in the line "Shed Windows Installation" or "Old Windows Installation".
If you have in front of the field Other is Exclamation point, click on it and agree to delete logs.
Confirm the deletion of files by clicking the "OK" button.
After a few minutes, the folder will be deleted.
Thus, you can easily remove Windows.old in a way that suits you.
After upgrading to Windows 10, users find a huge directory on the system drive. It is called Windows.old and can take about 8-16 or even more gigabytes, and when you try to delete it, it displays a notification about the impossibility of the operation.
This raises the question of how the Windows old folder is deleted in Windows 10, what is stored in it and this information is needed. In this manual, familiarize yourself with the contents of the mentioned directory and learn how to get rid of Windows.old.
If you still understand, then the previous edition is stored in Windows.old operating system, the one that was used on the computer before the update was installed. It also contains all files. working Windows, if Windows 10 is installed on the drive where the running OS is located, but without formatting the current system volume.
Apart from system files and applications, the directory also contains user ones located in a folder with its name (including the My Documents and Desktop directories). If after upgrading the PC could not find any documents, look for them through the search.
Delete Windows.old using the operating system
When a dozen is quite satisfied and you are sure that you will not roll back to the previous edition of the OS from Microsoft, then it makes sense to get rid of the Windows.old directory, or at least its contents.
Separately, it is worth noting the cases of the appearance of a directory with the old version of the “dozens” after installing updates to it. In such situations, you should not rush to delete the folder, because it does not store all dozens of files, but only those that are changed during the update. The best option will wait a few weeks to make sure the operating system is working.
To remove a directory from backup the previous ten, we follow the steps shown in the following instructions.
1. Run the system disk cleanup tool.
This is done through the appropriate request (Disk Cleanup) in the search line or by running the “cleanmgr” command through the search, or text string command interpreter (called by Win+R).
2. We are waiting for the completion of the process of analyzing the contents of the partition in order to search for files that can be deleted.
3. Click on the "Clean up system files" icon.
To do this, you must have administrator privileges or work under an account with the appropriate privileges.
4. Check the box "Previous Windows installations".
5. Click "OK" to delete the Windows.old directory.
6. We are waiting for the completion of the tasks assigned to the program.
As a result of such simple operations, Window.old will be erased from the system disk, and if the directory remains, it will be empty.
Getting rid of Windows.old using the command line
If the previous option did not work or the directory was not completely cleared, you will have to resort to using a system tool called the command line.
1. We call the program with administrator rights.
In order to do this, right-click on the C: drive in the My Computer directory and select "Open command window as Administrator". The second way is to use the Start context menu.
2. Enter the command "RD /S /Q C:\windows.old" and press "Enter" to execute it.
RD- system command to delete the specified folder with all directories and files nested in it;
S is a key indicating that all subdirectories should be removed;
Q - attribute allows you to deactivate the request to confirm the execution of the command.
How to clear Windows.old through the Task Scheduler
1. Call the Task Scheduler.
The easiest way to launch it is through the search bar.
2. Expand the "Microsoft" branch in the scheduler library.
3. Open the "Windows" folder.
4. In the "Setup" directory, find the "SetupCleanupTask" task and double-click on it.
It is responsible for deleting the folder after 30 days from the date of the update, but in the Options tab, you can change the due date of the task to a closer one to speed up the process.
The method does not always work, but it is worth familiarizing yourself with it for greater diversity.
The most reliable way
1. While holding "Shift", press "Restart".
2. In the window for selecting actions, click "Diagnostics".
After restarting the PC, a command prompt will appear.
4. In it, we execute “diskpart”, then “list volume” to determine the label of the system partition.
5. Exit the program by executing "exit".
6. Enter RD /S /Q "C:\windows.old" and press "Enter", where C: is the disk label.
7. Close the window and click "Continue".
These instructions are quite enough for any user.
Almost every ordinary user has had the experience of reinstalling the operating system on his personal computer. Not everyone formats the system disk and, having successfully installed new Windows, with bewilderment, discover a mysterious folder. In fact, everything is quite simple!
After such a discovery, there are a lot of questions that baffle. Let's find out all about Windows Old, what is this folder, and how to delete it in the OS. Below you can find answers and several step-by-step instructions written to make it easier for a novice PC user to solve the problem.
In fact, without a preliminary formatting procedure or when updating, this folder is a straw that makes it possible to return to old version your OS, if you don’t like the current one or didn’t like it at all. The system creates the directory automatically and will not let you just erase it without the necessary rights. Usually, the folder turns out to be quite large and can take more than ten gigabytes, which causes dissatisfaction among those whose computer is already clogged or does not initially have a large hard drive.
If you are not embarrassed by the size, but still have doubts about the new OS, do not rush to erase Windows Old. Since deciding to return to old version, but after deleting the directory, it will be impossible to restore the old data. It should also be noted that restoring or transferring user data to clean Windows may have an unpredictable outcome, so everything is done at your own risk.
Transferring data from Windows Old
Prepare the installation distribution kit with the OS. Put the computer on reboot and go into BIOS, then select boot from DVD drive.
1) Checking available space.
The first and quite logical action will be to double-check the free space on the system disk of your PC. For this you need to go to context menu. This operation is required to understand whether the transferred data will fit in new system. Don't skip this step, otherwise it won't work.
2) Recovery environment.
After selecting "System Recovery Options", enable the item "command line".
3) Replacing system folders.
You will open a service window in which you need to enter 8 commands. Further, the algorithm of action is as follows:
- Specify system hard drive.
- We form a new directory.
- Move folders and copy with autocorrect.
One of the important points is the correct and consistent writing of commands, after each of which confirmation is pressed with Enter.
- We transfer the data to the "User" folder.
- Change file attributes.
- We transfer the data to "Program Data".
- Delete the "Document and Settings" directory.
4) Moving to the root directory.
Windows 7, most likely, will decide to be “naughty” and will not agree to simply install old user data in its directories. Therefore, we indicate the move command to it and copy it to these folders:
- Windows.
- program files.
- programdata.
- Users.
- Documents and Settings.
We write the following command:
D:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c:
Having done this, you should press Enter and write exit. Congratulations on completing the user data recovery process!
How to uninstall Windows Old on Windows 10, 8, 7?
As you can already see, if you click on Windows Old and select delete, the system will answer that this is not possible. That is, it will not let you delete the directory just like that and you will have to sweat a little after a series of manipulations. The following options will help you figure it out and free up the occupied space.
- Go to the start menu.
- Then select "All Programs".
- Go to the "Standard" section and then to "Utilities".
- Click Disk Cleanup.
You can also get there faster by pressing the Win + R key combination and typing cleanmrg.
In the window that opens, select the system drive and confirm. After analyzing the directories and files, the system will offer a list in which there will be an item "Previous Windows installations". Mark it and click OK. The folder will be deleted.
Command line
- Click "Start" and start the "Reboot" mode by holding down the Shift button.
- Then select "Diagnostics".
- Go to the "Extras" menu. Options" and there the item "Command line".
- After rebooting, the system will display a text box.
- Write command diskpart and list volume. This will help you get information on which volume the OS was installed on, if for some reason you did not know.
- Enter exit.
- Next, for Windows 8 and 10, type RD C:\windows.old /S /Q , where C will be your system hard drive, so specify your letter. If you are using the 7th version, then you will have to write a little more: takeown / F C: Windows.old * / R / A. We are waiting for processing and write: cacls C:Windows.old*.* /T /grant administrators:F. After: rmdir /S /Q C:Windows.old.
- Quit the command line and proceed with the reboot.
CCleaner
For those who are completely at odds with the system and are afraid to do something wrong, an assistant in the difficult task of dealing with an unnecessary folder will be third party program CCleaner. It is provided in free version and it contains the Russian language, which will already greatly facilitate the task, especially for those who do not speak English.
- After downloading and installing, run.
- Click on "Cleanup".
- There will be a list on the left, uncheck all the checkboxes except for the one opposite the inscription "Old Installation Windows".
- Then click "Cleanup".
Manual cleaning
Uninstall manually without resorting to the command line and third party utilities, in fact, is also possible, but you need to have administrator rights.
- Click on the folder and select "Properties".
- Then "Security" and the item "Advanced".
- After that, you need to open the "Owner" subsection.
- Change the current account under which you are currently logged in, from user to administrator. After that, deletion is available by the usual click on the "Delete" button.
Conclusion
Summarizing all of the above, it should be clarified that before you permanently delete something, take your time and always think well. The remaining files may contain useful digital data both for you personally and for the computer system. We hope that the above step by step instructions will be informative for the user who stumbled upon this article, being in search of answers. Using our advice, you will not only solve the problem that has arisen, but also learn something new that will be useful in further work.
After upgrading, and going to new version Windows 10 OS, the user notices a directory on the system drive Windows.old taken from nowhere. At the same time, the directory occupies many gigabytes of disk space, and deleting it in the standard way is not possible. In this article, I will tell you what the Windows.old folder is, explain the reasons for its appearance, and also describe in detail how to delete this folder from your disk.
Usually, the Windows.old folder is created by the system after Windows is upgraded to a newer version. The system places files and directories from the previous version of Windows in this folder, and you can use them to return to the old version if for some reason you don’t like the new OS. Also, if you are interested in some specific file in an old version of the OS, you can always go to the folder in question and find it there.
The Windows.old folder has three directories:
- Windows- system files of the previous version of the OS;
- Documents and Settings— documents and settings;
- program Files- a folder with previously installed programs.
If you decide to search for the desired file in this directory, do not delay the search for too long. Typically, Windows 10 deletes the Windows.old folder in just a month in order to free up disk space.
Reverting to a previous OS version
For example, if you have moved to the tenth Windows version and its interface or functionality did not suit you, you can use the files in the windows.old folder to return to the old version of the OS (7, 8, 8.1).
- Go to settings, select updates and security, then click on "Recovery" (Recovery).
- You will see a button to return to the previous version of the OS.
- Press one of these keys and Windows will restore the previous version of the operating system using the files in Windows.old as the source.
How to recover personal files from Windows.old
Just use explorer or another file manager, go to this directory, your personal files are located in Windows.old\Users\YOUR NAME.
How to remove Windows.old
It can be seen that this Windows.old folder occupies a significant amount of space on the hard drive, its volume usually starts at 10 gigabytes or more, 20 gigabytes or more is considered quite normal. When trying to delete this folder in the standard way (through Explorer), you will receive a message about system error. Of course, you can try to get around this message by changing the attributes of this directory and its attachments, but in any case, this is not a completely correct way.
- In deleting the Windows.old folder, the system toolkit for . In Windows 10, click on the "Start" button, find "Disk Cleanup" in the start menu, and launch the Disk Cleanup application.
- You can also choose a different path by right-clicking on the C drive, selecting "properties", and then clicking on the "Disk Cleanup" button (this is also true for other versions of Windows).
- In the menu that appears, click on "Clean up system files". You'll see a "Previous Windows installations" item with an indication of how much space they take up. Select this item and delete the files of the previous OS version.
- Usually this is enough to remove. If for some reason this directory has not been deleted, launch the console with administrative rights and type in it: rd /s /q c:\windows.old.
Visually, the removal process can be seen in the video.
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