Forum Discussion

Howard Lavalette's avatar
Howard Lavalette
Copper Contributor
Oct 09, 2018
Solved

Windows.old directory

So I have noticed that the windows feature upgrades create a Windows.old directory and when you try to delete it, the system pops up an error stating some files are in use. Windows is not using up tw...
  • Tyler Mclaughlin's avatar
    Tyler Mclaughlin
    Oct 15, 2018

    With Windows 10, the new method for removing the previous Windows installation is documented here.

     

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028075/windows-delete-your-previous-version-of-windows

Troy Briley's avatar
Troy Briley
Copper Contributor
Oct 09, 2018

Its used in case you want to roll back to the previous version of Windows. If things are stable you can run disk cleanup and select the clean system files option. It will give you the option to delete previous installations. This is the only way i know of to safely delete this folder. The windows.old folder has been around for some time. I think Microsoft started using it when Windows 8 came out.

  • Tyler Mclaughlin's avatar
    Tyler Mclaughlin
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 15, 2018

    With Windows 10, the new method for removing the previous Windows installation is documented here.

     

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4028075/windows-delete-your-previous-version-of-windows

    • Howard Lavalette's avatar
      Howard Lavalette
      Copper Contributor
      Oct 16, 2018
      Thanks, exactly what I needed to know