Delete Windows.old??

[Wictorian]

After I updated Windows, there is a folder named Windows.old. Is it safe to delete?

[GuiltySpark_]

Yes.

 

Quote

What Is the Windows.old Folder?

This folder is created when you upgrade from one version of Windows to another, starting with Windows Vista. The Windows.old folder contains all the files and data from your previous Windows installation. You can use it to restore your system to the old version of Windows if you don’t like the new version. If you’re looking for a specific file that wasn’t properly copied to your new Windows installation, you also could dig into the Windows.old folder and find it.

Essentially, the Windows.old folder just contains the old Windows system. From the Windows system files to your installed programs and each user account’s settings and files, it’s all here. The new version of Windows just keeps it around in case you’d like to go back to that older version of Windows or in case you need to dig in and find a file.

But, don’t wait too long—Windows will automatically delete the Windows.old folder to free up space after a month.

https://www.howtogeek.com/223821/what-is-the-windows.old-folder-and-how-do-you-delete-it/

[Guest]

It's there to let you rollback if the current update is not working well.

I suggest keeping it for a while before deleting it, just in case you need to rollback.

 

I think it automatically gets deleted after a month or so.

[Nathanpete]

Be prepared to fight a battle to remove it. No matter how many times I change the owners, enter passwords, and change permissions, I still can't delete two of the sub folders. 

[demonix00]

3 hours ago, Nathanpete said:

Be prepared to fight a battle to remove it. No matter how many times I change the owners, enter passwords, and change permissions, I still can't delete two of the sub folders. 

Did you try using the disk clean-up utility as that is what I always use to remove the windows.old folder (run it, select the system drive and let it run, click the "clean up system files" button, repeat the previous process and one of the options will allow you to remove data from older versions aka removing the windows.old folder).

[Nathanpete]

16 hours ago, demonix00 said:

Did you try using the disk clean-up utility as that is what I always use to remove the windows.old folder (run it, select the system drive and let it run, click the "clean up system files" button, repeat the previous process and one of the options will allow you to remove data from older versions aka removing the windows.old folder).

The problem with mine is that when I did a disk cloning backup, it included windows.old in the backup, and I need space on this backup disk, so I need to remove the folder. But somehow while cloning all the permissions got screwed up and after 2 hours the folder went from 30 gigs to 6.