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Delete Windows.old To Free up Disk Space Windows 10

If you Recently upgraded to Windows 10 version 22H2, You Might Have noticed a low disk space problem, The disk space on your disk drive was considerably reduced, Windows Installation Drive Was full. That’s because Windows installs a completely new version and keeps the old one around named windows.old folder. This Windows.old copy is a safeguard mechanism in case something goes wrong during the installation process. Or just in case you want to go back (downgrade) to the previous version.

What is Windows.old Folder

The Windows.old Folder only appears at the root of the local disk C: if we did a complete Windows upgrade from an older version, instead of formatting the hard drive and doing a clean installation. While upgrading to New Version Windows Keeps The old files on Windows.old Folder, Which contains all Windows operating system files, Documents and Settings, Program Files, and installed apps.

Use Of Windows.old Folder

We Can use this Windows.old folder to retrieve any documents from your old installation by press Win + R, Type %systemdrive%\Windows.old and clicking ok. Then Retrieve the files from the Windows.old folder. Also, It can be used to restore your system to the old version of Windows if you don’t like the new version.

This means if something bad happens, the operating system can use the backup copy to roll back any change automatically. Or in the case of Windows 10, you also get the option to go back to your previous version of the operating system within the first month if you don’t like it.

Delete Windows.old To Free up Disk Space

Windows.old Folder Contains The old windows version files, Which contain all Windows operating system files, Documents and Settings, Program Files, and installed apps. And this used To Go Back to the previous Version, If something bad happens, After upgrade to the new version.

As the Windows.old folder contains all previous Windows operating system files it takes a significant amount of disk space. In some cases, the Windows.old folder size might go up to 10 to 15 GB, depending on the total size of the previous Windows installation.

If you decide that you’re happy running Windows 10 current version and don’t want to roll back. Then you can simply delete the windows.old folder to save hard disk space. Or will get deleted automatically usually by Windows after a set period of time.

Note: We suggest leaving the Windows.old folder where it is until you’ve made sure you’re happy with your upgrade, and all your files and settings are in place. If you are having a storage issue and are happy with the current windows version Then Delete The windows.old Folder using the following method.

Delete Windows.old

So you are happy with the current Windows version and looking for Delete Windows.old To free up some Disk space. But simply Right-click on windows.old and Delete don’t allow to remove the folder Because this is a special folder that can only be deleted from the disk cleanup Utility. Let’s See How to Remove Windows.old Folder permanently.

First Open This PC, Right-click on windows Installed Drive ( Usually it’s your C Drive ), And Select properties. Here Under General Tab  Click on Disk Cleanup. And Wait flew minute, Disk cleanup Tool To clean disk drive. This will scan system errors, memory dump files, Temp Internet Files Etc.

perform Disk Cleanup on Windows 10

When the Disk Cleanup utility has loaded, click on the Cleanup system files button under the Description section. The Disk Cleanup window will appear again. After the utility scans your computer, scroll through the list and check the box next to Previous Windows installation(s). Here you can also choose to delete other installation-related files, including Windows upgrade log files and Temporary Windows installation files, which can take up several GB of storage as well.

delete windows.old using disk cleanup utility

Disk cleanup would now warn you that if you clean up the previous Windows installations or temporary installation files, you will no longer be able to restore the machine back to the previous version of Windows. That’s a Normal warning, Click Yes, and let Disk Cleanup do its job.

Delete Windows.old using Storage Sense

With Windows 10 Version 21H2 November 2021 update, Windows Added A new Feature Storage sense. If you Recently upgrade to windows 10 November 2021 update, Then you can use the Storage Sense Feature to Delete Windows.old and free Up Disk space.

You Can do this from Windows Settings -> System -> Storage. Here you will find the Option Named Storage Sense, Enable the feature. And click the link Change how we free up space.

Enable Storage sense

Change how we free up space page will appear. Under Free up space now, check the option Delete previous versions of Windows. And click the button Clean now, This will remove the files from the earlier installed OS instantly.

Delete windows old using Storage sense

Delete windows.old without disk cleanup

If you Don’t Want to perform Disk Cleanup Tool, Then you Can Also Delete the Windows.old folder using the Command prompt. Simply Open Command prompt as administrator, They Type command

takeown /F C:Windows.old* /R /A

cacls C:Windows.old*.* /T /grant administrators:F

This will grant Administrators, Full rights to all Folders and files. So that you can easily Delete previous installation files with any permission Error. Now type rmdir /S /Q C:Windows.old To Delete the windows.old folder. Also, you can use Third-party Applications like CCleaner to clean up Windows.old Folder.

That’s All, I hope the Above Steps Help To reclaim disk space that was unnecessarily being consumed after the upgrade to windows 10 November 2021 update. Have any Query, Suggestion About this Post Delete Windows.old To Free up Disk Space After Windows 10 version 21H2 Upgrade, Feel Free To discuss comments below. Also, Read How to Fix The Computer Restarted Unexpectedly Loop in Windows 10

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