After we upgrade the operating system, the system partition appears the folder Windows.old they are stored the folders and files of the old operating system from PC / laptop.
In most situations this folder is not used. Windows.old help the user to return to the old version of the operating system If he wants this in time. From our experience, this happens in very few situations, and when a user decides to make a downgrade, makes it with a "clean" reinstallation of the operating system.
In mod normal, This folder will be deleted automatically by Windows after a period of time, but until then he does nothing but to occupy a considerable space on disk. And if we have a SSD whose space is quite limited, then keeping the Windows.old folder is not a good idea.
Being associated as folder SYSTEM, its manual deletion is impossible. As long as it does not belong to any user on the operating system, he cannot erase by selection and pressing the key "Delete". So we need to attribute them special permissions that then we can handle it manually. Otherwise we will hit the message ”Folder Access Denied“.
How to delete Windows.old folder manually
First of all, we open Command Prompt with administrator rights. I press the keys Win R, and dialog box of "Run .." Tyst "cmd.exe". We hold the Shift and Ctrl keys, then press Enter.
Another option is to open it from "Start Menu". We type "Command", We select" Command Prompt ", Click-Drepta and"Run as administrator…”.
After this first step, we execute the following command lines promptly:
takeown /F c:\Windows.old\* /R /A /D Y
cacls c:\Windows.old\*.* /T /grant administrators:F
rmdir /S /Q c:\Windows.old
Once you execute the last order line, the Windows.old folder will be deleted. In the scenario in which you have the Windows.old folder in a different partition than "C: ", change the letter of the partition in the lines above.
Thanks this is the only way I have found functional and running
Hello,
I tried to hand the old windows manually, but I tried other variants first and renamed the directors and changed attributes and now I do not let me delete. How could I get rid of the old Windows?
Click-right on the system partition and uses "Disk Cleanup". Select there to scan your system files. At the end of the scan process, he selects to erase the old version of Windows.
However, it is good to know and what version of Windows you use.
I tried so but not see Winold as a system files, it finds me about 200MB files, temp, erased and others, and the Winold director has 6GB and does not appear to check it.
I use Windows 10.
Size 8,59 GB (9.227.979.103 bytes)
Size on disk 5,49 GB (5.896.556.544 bytes)
Contains 74.716 Files, 15.294 Folders
Return the first method, the one in the tutorial. The idea is to launch Command promptly with administrator rights and execute "Takeown" on the folder you want to delete.
Then you can execute "RMDir /S /Q C: windows.old (or as the folder is now called).
Eventually it worked with those orders. I think in the first phase I had not opened a prompt order with the rights of administrator this did not work. Thanks for help.
I removed the Window.OLD folder using the modern settings- the system- it changes the disk, and here I checked to remove the previous Windows and started cleaning now, about 20 Muinut then ended, but the Windows.old folder remained on the disk with empty files! I can not get rid of these ingredients! I have Windows 10 too!
How easy it is when you know how to do it. Thanks!
In the end line I get a message that the file is not found, and when I repeat it it does not allow access.