¿You just installed Windows 10 on a PC that you already had an older version of Windows? Do you have Windows XP / 7/8 and have you upgraded to Windows 10? Then you have probably come across the folder Windows.old at some point and want to delete it.
It is usually located in the main partition of our hard drive, and the truth is that it takes up a lot of space. A precious space that we could free up and take advantage of for other purposes. Therefore, in today's post we will see how to delete Windows.old foldercorrectly and without complications. Thus, we will have a little more room in (C :) to install programs, store documents, videos or whatever we want.
What is the Windows.old folder and what is it for?
It is never a good idea to delete a folder from your system without knowing exactly what it does. In this case, Windows.old is the folder where they are stored all system files and user documents from the previous Windows installation that we had on the team.
When we install Windows 10 on a computer that already had a previous installation of the Microsoft operating system, it is collected and saved in case we ever want to go back and go back to the previous version. This folder is usually called Windows.old or Windows.old.000 (if we have more than one previous installation) and its size is usually between 4GB and 25GB.
Therefore, if we are sure that we do not want the information stored there at all, it is best to delete it.
In my case, Windows.old occupies up to 24GB, which is not exactly small.How to delete Windows.old correctly
If we try to delete the Windows.old folder in a traditional way, the system will hinder us (need for permissions and so on). To do a clean erase we have several alternatives.
1 # Wait a month: Windows.old clears itself
If we wait for 30 days to pass, Windows itself will delete the folder automatically. Once the month has passed, the system understands that we will no longer need to go back to a previous version and therefore deletes the backup stored in Windows.old to free up space.
2 # Use Disk Cleanup
If we have a 125 or 250GB SSD disk, the 20 gigs that the copy of Windows.old occupies can make a big difference. In this case we can skip the month of waiting and delete the folder ourselves.
- First, we open the “Disk Cleanup”By searching in Cortana.
- Click on "Clean up system files”.
- In this new window we will mark the option "Previous Windows installations”.
- We click on "To accept”To start the erasing process.
Once completed, we will see that the Windows.old folder (and Windows.old.000 too, in case we had a second installation) has disappeared from the root of (C :).
3 # Delete Windows.old manually by changing read permissions
This last method is the least orthodox, although we cannot say that it does not work either. It is slower than using the Disk Cleanup, since here the system has to change the permissions of each and every folder and file that make up Windows.old.
- We right click on the Windows.old folder and select "Properties”.
- We uncheck the tab of "Read only"And click on"Apply”.
- In this new window, we mark “Apply changes to this folder and all subfolders and files"And click on"To accept”.
This process can take several minutes. Once the change of permissions is completed, we just have to select the Windows.old folder and delete it in a traditional way (right button and “Remove”Or we press the delete key).
If you found this post interesting, you can take a look at the rest of the blog's tutorials and tricks in the category Windows. There are some that are really good!
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