If you have tried upgrading your Windows PC and it has failed a couple of times due to various annoying reasons, you lot've probably come to realize that at that place is a big chunk of disk space being eaten upwards past a folder called Windows.old.

Windows.old is automatically generated whenever y'all perform an installation of Windows with a previous version of the OS already installed. It creates this Windows.old folder in the root of the Windows partition and stores the previous operating system files and data.

In case you try to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows vii or Windows 7 to Windows 10 and it fails, yous can ever revert back to Windows Vista or seven safely. The only issue with this is that every time the install fails, some other re-create of the previous OS is copied into Windows.old.

So, if your upgrade install failed 2 or 3 times, that Windows.old binder tin become very large, very fast! On top of that, the folder is non automatically deleted one time you are up and running with the newer version of Windows, and so you accept to get rid of it yourself.

Note: Removing the Windows.old folder will upshot in your inability to be able to revert back to the previous OS installed. Yous will have to stick with the new version of Windows. Too, the Windows.quondam folder gets created when you lot install those big bi-annual updates for Windows 10.

Remove Windows.onetime Folder

So how do y'all go rid of the binder? Well, you have to use the Disk Cleanup utility! Here's how to go nearly it. The first method will depict how to delete the Windows.old binder on Windows 7/viii/x. If yous are in Windows Vista still, follow the second set of instructions.

Windows 7/8/10 Instructions

If you lot are in Windows 7/viii/x and desire to delete the Windows.quondam folder, the process is fairly straightforward. First, open Disk Cleanup via the Start Menu (click Start and type in deejay cleanup) and when the dialog pops up, choose the drive that has the .old files on information technology and click OK. This is normally merely the C bulldoze. If that's the but drive on your figurer, information technology won't fifty-fifty ask yous to choose.

The system will perform a scan and another dialog will pop up with the selection. Now click on the button Cleanup arrangement files button at the bottom.

remove window.old folder

Now choose the bulldoze again that has the .quondam files on information technology. The organization will perform a second scan of files that need to be cleaned upwardly and will take a bit longer.

Finally, a dialog volition pop up with another set of checkboxes. Gyre down until you find one labeled Older versions of Windows or Previous Windows installations and click OK.

As you tin run into, it's normally quite a large amount of data that gets taken up by previous installations of Windows.

Windows Vista Instructions

Click on Start, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then Disk Cleanup. Brand certain you right-click on Disk Cleanup and cull Run As Administrator.

delete windows.old

In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog, make sure to check the Files from all users on this computer box.

Then in the Disk Cleanup – Drive Pick dialog, click on the hard disk where the the Windows.onetime binder is and click OK. The system will then scan the drive for unnecessary files.

Click on the Deejay Cleanup tab and expect for a checkbox that says Previous Windows installations. Check information technology and click OK. And then click Delete Files when prompted.

That'south it! That should go rid of those space-hogging .old folders forever! If y'all have any problems getting rid of them, post a annotate here and I'll try to help. Savor!