How to Remove the “Windows.old” Folder Safely in Windows 10 – Complete Guide

Windows OS is a very versatile and powerful OS with many functional features that lets the users o work with the computer efficiently. The OS provides the users with a platform to run third-party utility tools and software and helps users with performing day-to-day computing activities. The Windows OS is developed and released by Microsoft Corporation and the corporate makes sure to upgrade and improve the OS periodically to enhance the user experience. The updates are very effective and Microsoft makes sure to provide the users with the best version upgrade and improve the functioning of the computer. 

The Windows OS is an ever-evolving OS and had been updated and improved by Microsoft. The latest OS is the Windows 10 OS and there have been approximately 17 major OS released.  The OS certainly is pretty fabulous as the OS gets upgraded and improved with time to provide the users with the latest technological feature. With each update, the previous version of the OS would be saved on the disk as to provide the user with the option to revert the OS to the earlier version. This feature has been very crucial as many users have used this feature to come back to the earlier version of the OS as they would have found difficulties in using the new OS. 

How to delete the Windows. old folder using Storage sense settings in windows 10
Remove the “Windows.old” Folder Safely in Windows 10

Previously Microsoft used to release their Windows OSes on CDs, which the users can purchase and install on their computers, and with the advancements in the internet/ network technology. Microsoft had shifted the OS department to the web and has been doing a great job in providing online support and updates to the users. The Windows 10 OS is said to be the final version that would be released as an OS package and the OS will only receive feature updates and bug fixes on a regular basis. With everything takes to the online platform the need for ISO image files has been reducing as users can download the OS ISO file directly from the Microsoft official website and install it on their computers.

In this article, the process for removing the Windows.old file from the Windows 10 computer will be depicted and you can follow the steps to remove the files from your computer to save some storage space. first, you need to know what the Windows .old file is and can this file be deleted from Windows 10 OS.

The Windows .old file is the backup copy of the previous version of the Windows OS that will automatically be saved once you have installed the newer version of the OS on your computer. This file contains all the files related to the previous OS and can be utilized to restore to the earlier OS version if you don’t like the new version of the OS. Deleting the Windows .old file is totally safe and doing so will not damage the current OS and its functionalities. 

The process of removing the files is pretty straightforward and can be done easily on the Windows 10 OS. you just need to make sure that you don’t mess up during the process as you will be dealing with the Disk Drive C and it contains all the crucial files for the functioning of the OS.

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Remove the “Windows.old” Folder Safely in Windows 10

Follow the below-mentioned steps to Remove the “Windows.old” Folder Safely in Windows 10:

  • There are several methods to clean up the previous Windows installation files from the computer.
  • Here is the easiest method for cleaning up the files on the computer.
  • On your computer, open up Windows Explorer by using the shortcut key Windows + the letter “E”.
  • Now, navigate to this PC.
  • Here, right-click on the C-Drive and open the properties from the dropdown menu.
  • Now choose the disk clean-up option from the general tab of the properties.
  • A quick scan will run and the list will be loaded in a separate window.
  • Now, look for the “Previous Windows Installation file from the list and check-mark the box near the option.
  • Now press Ok in on the bottom right corner to clean up the previous Windows installations.
  • Make sure you only checkmark the box near the Previous Windows Installation file and not other files to avoid deletion of other files from the computer.
can't find windows.old folder in windows 10

This method is the simplest and easy to follow. The other methods involved deleting of the previous Windows installation files using the Storage sense and is difficult compared to the one mentioned above.

Hope the information provided above was informational and you were able to remove the “Windows.old” Folder Safely in Windows 10. Make use of you be cautious about the removal of the selected files and select only the Previous Windows installation from the list and not the other files. Once you have deleted the previous windows installations files you would have freed up space for up to 15 GB and that is a huge amount of storage. It is recommended that you only delete the files only if you are short of storage and really don’t need the files of the previous version. 

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