Correctly deleting the windows old folder. Extra Windows old folder how to delete

The Windows.old folder is automatically created in the root directory of the drive with the installed operating system after updating to the latest version. It stores copies of the files of the previous OS, which are used when the system is "rolled back".

Important! If you have previously upgraded the OS to a new version, or reinstalled in upgrade mode, there will be several such folders. They are called Windows.old.000.

If your computer has a small internal storage, deleting the folder will save space because it takes up 20 GB or more of memory.

Deleting folders

You need to delete old files only when the computer is stable, you have updated the OS to the latest version and are not going to return to the "seven" or "eight" in the future.

Using the Disk Cleanup utility

In the latest versions of the operating system, it became possible to delete this file through the settings. Consider the option for both a new build of Windows 10 and earlier ones.

Build 1803 April Update and newer

Starting with build 1803, which was released in the spring of 2018, you can delete the files of the previous OS from the system settings:

Go to "Settings" through the "Start" menu (or by the key combination Win + I).
Item "System" → "Device memory".
"Memory control" → "Free up space now".

Note! The scanning process can take more than a few minutes.
Check the box next to "Previous Windows installations".
At the top of the window, click Delete Files.

After the process is complete, the Windows.old folder will disappear on the system drive and will not take up space on the drive.

Previous builds of Windows 10

Note! This instruction is relevant for OS builds below 1803.

Go to « My computer"(Under the Administrator entry) and on the disk with the installed operating system, by right-clicking, select the section" Properties».
"System disk properties" → "Disk cleanup"

Helpful! The utility can be opened with the "cleanmgr" command:
Win + R → Run → cleanmgr → select the volume with the operating system
Click " Clean up system files».
After re-analysis, select "" in the window and click "OK".
Important! To further clean up free space, also select the items:
- temporary OS installation files;
- oS update log files.
Confirm file deletion.

More details on the process of removing this folder can be seen in the video:

Via Command Line

Start Menu → Search → Command Prompt(under the account of the Administrator).
Enter: rd / s / q c: \\ windows.old

Through the Command line when restarting the computer

Output

You can remove folders with a previous version of the operating system in one of three ways. The editors advise using the removal using the Disk Cleanup utility. This method is safer and more reliable.

Removal method	Reliability	Speed	Complexity	Editorial rating
	Average	High	Low	1
	High	Average	Average	2
Command line on reboot	High	low	High	3

Important! If you have previously upgraded the OS to a new version, or reinstalled in upgrade mode, there will be several such folders. They are called Windows.old.000.

If your computer has a small internal storage, deleting the folder will save space because it takes up 20 GB or more of memory.

Deleting folders

You need to delete old files only when the computer is stable, you have updated the OS to the latest version and are not going to return to the "seven" or "eight" in the future.

Using the Disk Cleanup utility

In the latest versions of the operating system, it became possible to delete this file through the settings. Consider the option for both a new build of Windows 10 and earlier ones.

Build 1803 April Update and newer

Starting with build 1803, which was released in the spring of 2018, you can delete the files of the previous OS from the system settings:

Go to "Settings" through the "Start" menu (or by the key combination Win + I).
Item "System" → "Device memory".
"Memory control" → "Free up space now".

Note! The scanning process can take more than a few minutes.
Check the box next to "Previous Windows installations".
At the top of the window, click Delete Files.

After the process is complete, the Windows.old folder will disappear on the system drive and will not take up space on the drive.

Previous builds of Windows 10

Note! This instruction is relevant for OS builds below 1803.

Go to « My computer"(Under the Administrator entry) and on the disk with the installed operating system, by right-clicking, select the section" Properties».
"System disk properties" → "Disk cleanup"

Helpful! The utility can be opened with the "cleanmgr" command:
Win + R → Run → cleanmgr → select the volume with the operating system
Click " Clean up system files».
After re-analysis, select "" in the window and click "OK".
Important! To further clean up free space, also select the items:
- temporary OS installation files;
- oS update log files.
Confirm file deletion.

More details on the process of removing this folder can be seen in the video:

Via Command Line

-\u003e Search -\u003e Command Line(under the account of the Administrator).
Enter: rd / s / q c: \\ windows.old

Through the Command line when restarting the computer

Output

Removal method	Reliability	Speed	Complexity	Editorial rating
	Average	High	Low	1
	High	Average	Average	2
Command line on reboot	High	low	High	3

The methods described below work with everyone, and we will study and take into account minor differences in the process.

Important: make sure that nothing of value is left inside this folder, as all documents that you used in the previous version are stored there. Check folders such as Downloads, Documents, etc.

Removal via Windows

Method 1. System tools.

To do this, use the "Disk Cleanup" function.

1. Open My Computer.
2. Select the system drive (the one on which Windows is currently installed). If you don't know, then Windows will prompt:

3. Click on it with the right mouse button and select "Properties".
4. Click the Disk Cleanup button. The system will scan all files available for cleaning. This can take from a few seconds to 10 minutes or more.
5. Now click on "Clean up system files". A rescan will take place.

6. Find Previous Windows Installations in the list.

7. Check it and click "OK". The system will ask you to confirm the action, answer with consent.
8. When finished, restart your computer if necessary.

Method 2. Rights to the folder.

If you just try to delete the folder, then most likely you will receive a message that "You need to ask for permission ...". To prevent this from happening, and you can safely delete Windows.old like any other file on your computer, do the following:

For Windows 7:

1. Right-click on the folder, select Properties → Security → Advanced.

2. In the "Additional parameters" go to the "Owner" tab and click "Change".

3. Now you can specify the new owner of the folder. Select your account from the list. If you don't know what it is called, then open the Start menu and look under the profile icon.
4. After selecting an account, check the box "Replace owner of subcontainers", click OK.

5. Wait until the end of the procedure, at the end of which the system will notify you about the successful change of rights:

6. Now it remains to return to the Advanced settings, but to the "Permissions" tab → "Change".

7. In the new window, click "Add". On the tab that opens, enter the name of your account, and then click on "Verify Name". If successful, the profile name in the search box may change slightly and will be underlined. The latter means that the record was found. Click OK.

8. Now you have a window in which you indicate what rights are available to this account. We put a tick in front of "Full access", then OK.

9. You will see the window from item 7, but now there will be one more entry in the list - your login. We select it, mark the items "Add permissions" and "Replace all permissions". OK.

10. If one or two windows appear asking you to confirm the continuation of the operation, we answer "Yes", after which the system will quickly issue the necessary powers.

11. Can I delete the entire "Windows old" folder now? Yes, this time the system will warn you that everything will be deleted irrevocably. This indicates that you have the right rights. We confirm, and it's done.

For Windows 8 and Windows 10:

1. Here everything is the same, only in item 2, instead of the "Owner" tab, there is a line of the same name, next to which you need to click on "Change".
2. Then a window will open in which you will not need to select from the list, but enter the username yourself, as in step 7.

3. After that, look at the Permissions tab, click "Add".
4. In the "Subject" field, press "Select" and enter the username again. OK.
5. Below we set "Full access", and click OK.

The option to uninstall Windows.old appears only if this folder is present on your computer. The screenshots show the same version of the program, but in one case there was Windows installed on top of another, in the second - there was only one Windows 7 on the computer.

Conclusion

The method of setting the rights to the folder may seem the most confusing, but still it is the most correct, since allows you to delete the old Windows folder even if something went wrong. For example, if the installation of the system was unsuccessful or if a manual uninstallation attempt failed.

Windows folder. old, stored on the system disk, contains the old version of Windows with all the settings. It is created in two cases - when reinstalling the operating system without formatting the disk, or when updating the operating system to a more modern version. Everything would be fine, but this archive ultimately takes up a lot of disk space. Based on this, many users are asking a reasonable question about removing it. How to uninstall Windows. old in Windows 10, we will talk in this article.

Should I delete the Windows folder. old?

So what is this Windows folder. old we figured it out. Now, before proceeding with an overview of how to remove it, let's figure out whether it is possible to remove it and whether it is worth doing it at all, without urgent need.

In fact, the folder with the data of the old version of Windows is not created in vain, but with a specific purpose - to provide the user with the opportunity to roll back to the old version of Windows. This is convenient if, after upgrading from Windows 7 to Window10, you come to the conclusion that the old version of the OS suits you better. Conclusion: by deleting the Windows folder. old, you will no longer be able to rollback to the previous OS version. All you have to do is reinstall the OS again.

Delete Windows folder. old with a regular disk cleaner

This is perhaps the easiest way to delete the Windows folder. old without using third-party programs. To run the built-in disk cleanup tool, we will use the Run command interpreter and the specialized cleanmgr command. To do this, press "Windows + R" and enter the specified command.

note: after selecting the desired drive, which is usually drive "C", it will be scanned, and not completely cleaned, as it might seem at first.

After scanning, the window of the tool for cleaning the selected disk will open, where we press the button "Clean up system files".

In the next step, you will be asked to specify the system objects to be deleted. With a tick, we indicate the elimination of previous OS installations and click "OK".

In order to avoid the consequences of incorrect user actions, the system will issue a confirmation request for the operation being performed.

After confirming its intention to remove the old version of Windows, the system will issue another confirmation request for the operation being performed with a warning about its consequences.

We agree and delete the Windows folder. old from the PC system disk.

Delete Windows folder. old via command line

Now let's take a look at how to delete a Windows folder. old using the command line. To do this, you will need to run it as an administrator, otherwise you will be denied access to this operation.

Having launched the command line, enter the command as shown in the picture below and press "Enter".

At the end of the process, all data about the old version of Windows will be erased.

Delete Windows folder. old with CCleaner

In addition to the methods described above, you can remove the old version of Windows through the CCleaner program. Download it from available sources and run the executable file from the CCleaner.exe archive, or CCleaner64.exe if your OS is 64-bit. Further, we leave only one tick opposite the line "Old Windows installation" and press the "Cleanup" button.

The Windows.old folder is considered the system folder because it contains files from the previous OS version. These include:

the Program Files directory;
user profiles;
various system files and other important information.

The reasons for this folder are very simple. It is created automatically in several cases:

during the update;
during the installation of any version, if the disk on which the operating system is being installed has not been formatted.

If you have a Windows.old.001 folder, then, most likely, there were several installations in a row, and each time without cleaning the disk.

Be careful. During installation, always press first and then - "Further".

There can be only one exception - if your system does not boot and you had to run a reinstallation. To keep old files on disk FROMnot deleted, it is recommended to install the OS without cleaning. Here's how to delete the Windows.old folder in Windows 10.

This directory can always be found at the root of the system drive. It should be noted that it does not always have a letter assigned C.

Please note that the size of this folder is usually quite large. It depends on the number of installed programs in the old OS.

If you need to copy some data, for example, from the old desktop, then just go to the directory Windows.Old... There is a directory inside. This is where your desktop will be stored. All this can be done through a regular conductor.

You can do the same with any documents or programs. All paths will be similar. Only everything will be added to the directory Windows.old.

What will the system do?

The Top Ten has a special utility that monitors the free space on hard drives. It perfectly detects the presence of old versions. If the partition on which the new operating system was installed is not very large, the following message will appear shortly after starting work.

If you accidentally forgot to format the disk or have already copied all the necessary files, then you can safely press the button "Delete"... Otherwise, you have limited time. After installation, after a certain period of time, the system itself will clear this data without your knowledge.

Is it possible to restore the system from the Windows.old folder

This directory, as mentioned at the very beginning, may appear in the event of a system update. You can uninstall the old version at any time. No need to hurry. First check the functionality of the new system.

If you suddenly notice any failures or you do not like something else, then you can always recover.

Let's consider this process step by step.

Left click on the menu "Start".

Next, click on the settings button.

After that, the next window will open. Here you need to click on the item

Click

If you had the same system before, the following window will be displayed. To start recovery, you need to click on the button

If you have upgraded from Windows 8.1, then you will have slightly different recovery options.

Please note that a return to the old operating system is possible only within a month, since the "Ten" will then erase all references to old files.

How to delete?

The easiest way, which, unfortunately, most users use, is to delete a folder using the Shift + Delete keys. This method is not very good, as this may leave some temporary installation files that are located in a different location.

In addition, errors may occur:

"ABOUTit is said in access " or something like that;
some folders may not be deleted;
the path to the files may be too long.

Disk Cleanup utility

You don't have to immediately think: “I can't delete. Save. Help!". You can do everything yourself. For this, Microsoft developers have come up with a special program that will help you remove all unnecessary files. Including the old Tens updates.

Let's consider this procedure step by step.

Make a right mouse click on the system disk.

In the menu that opens, select the item.

Then click on the button

The utility will show that only 8.85 MB can be freed. Click the button

After that, the program will begin to analyze what information can be deleted and what not.

Once the scan is finished, the following window will open. Default item «Previous installationsWindows " will be inactive, and its size is quite large.

You must check the box next to this line. This will immediately increase the amount of information removed. Then click on the button OK.

The utility will ask you again, just in case. Click the button

Now all that remains is to wait until the deletion process is complete. The time depends on the amount of information to be deleted.

You can periodically monitor the size of the hard disk. After finishing cleaning, the dialog box disappears by itself. The removal result is shown below.

How to delete the Windows.old folder using the command line

You can forcefully remove the previous version of the system through the console. To do this, follow these steps.

Open your console. For example, using the keyboard shortcut Win + X. Then select the highlighted item.

Enter the following command.

rd / s / q c: \\ windows.old

To activate it, press the Enter key.
With this command, you can delete all system files and some hidden folders that contain update information.

rd / s / q c: \\ $ Windows. ~ WS rd / s / q c: \\ $ Windows. ~ BT

After that, all information in these directories will be deleted permanently.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you should have understood what this folder is and how to delete it. If it is not removed, then most likely you are doing something wrong. Try repeating the above methods more closely. Perhaps something was overlooked, as every detail is very important.

It is important to understand that one unchecked checkbox in the settings can give a completely different result. And remember: always before deleting several times think about whether you really do not need these files, since they cannot be restored later!

Video instruction

If you have not completely figured out where the directory with the old data came from, or you cannot delete it completely, then it is recommended to additionally watch the video, in which everything is shown and explained in stages.