How to remove Windows.old – GuideSmartPhone.net

By the time you’ve upgraded your Windows PC, you’ve probably realized there’s a large chunk of disk space being eaten up by a folder called Windows old. The Windows.old folder is also created when upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 or Windows 11. Now that some time has passed, you should consider whether the folder is really still needed. In this article we will talk about how to delete Windows.old and free up disk space. With major updates, such as Windows 8 to Windows 10 or Windows 11, Windows saves an image of the previous version on your computer. This backup will be saved as Windows old and you can delete the file. Before deleting Windows.old permanently, you should consider whether you are really happy with Windows 10. This is because deleting the folder will make it much more difficult to downgrade to an older version without losing data. However, if you still regularly create backups of your system, you can delete the backup created by Windows with a clear conscience.

Also Read: How To Clear Windows 10 Cache

Wait a month: Windows.old deletes itself

If we wait for 30 days to pass, Windows itself will automatically delete the folder. Once the month has passed, the system realizes that it will no longer be necessary to revert to a previous version and then deletes Windows.old to free up space.

How to remove Windows.old

Launch Explorer (Windows key + E). Then select “This PC” and right-click on the hard drive icon on which Windows is installed. In the context menu select “Properties”. In the new window, click “Clean” in the “General” tab. Windows now determines if and which files can be deleted from the hard drive. This can take some time. In the “Cleanup” window, click the “Clean up system files” button at the bottom left. Windows now again determines whether and which system files can be deleted from the hard drive. This can also take some time.

What is important in the “Data Cleanup” window is the “Previous Windows Installations” entry, which means the windows.old directory. Directly to the right you can see how much disk space is freed up during a cleanup. Now decide if and which other ticks should be set in “Data Cleanup”. Think twice before deleting Windows old – the following step is at your own risk. Also consider whether there are still personal files in Windows.old, which you absolutely need to back up beforehand. After clicking on “Ok”, the desired cleaning of the hard disk is carried out.

How to delete Windows old via Storage Sense

The simplest method to erase Windows old from your device is by using Storage Sense by following these instructions. Go up Settings. Then tap System. Touch Memory. At the bottom of the section Configure Memory Sensor or run it nowtap the option Free up space now. At the bottom of the section Free up space nowlook at the option Delete the previous version of Windows. Then tap the button Clean up now.

Read also: Activate Windows 10 also with KMSPico

How to delete old windows using temporary files settings

go su Settings. Touch System. Touch Archiving. At the bottom of the Space Detection section archivingtap the Free option space now. Then select the option Previous Windows installation (s). (Required) Uncheck the options selected by default if you want to delete Windows.old to create storage space. Tap the button Remove files. Once this is done, the folder containing the previous Windows 10 installation will be deleted, freeing 14GB to 20GB of space on the primary hard drive.

How to delete Windows old with the help of CCleaner

CCleaner is a useful tool designed to remove old and temporary files from your PC. Some users use it to remove the Windows old folder, and if you use CCleaner you can remove the Windows.old folder by following these steps. Download and install CCleaner and click Cleaner. Select only Old Windows Installation. You should find this option in the list Advanced. Now click the button Analyze to start scanning. You should now see how much space the Windows.old folder takes up. Click the button Run Cleanup and wait until CCleaner removes this folder from your PC.

Delete Windows.old manually by changing the Read permissions

The latter method is the least orthodox. It is slower than using Cleaning disksince here the system must modify the permissions of each folder and file of which Windows old is composed. Right-click on the Windows.old folder and select “Property“. Deselect the “Read only“And click on”Applica“. In this new window, leave “Apply changes to this folder and all subfolders and files“Marked and done clic su “OK“. This process can take several minutes. Once the permissions change is complete, we just have to delete windows old in the traditional way, right click and “Remove”Or press the Delete key.