Windows 11 takes up a large amount of storage on the C drive. After more bloatware and a few big applications get piled on through updates, your C drive can run out of space very quickly. You may have noticed a folder named "Windows.old" on your system drive. If you check its size, it can easily eat up 8GB or more of storage.
You can't simply delete the folder, and you have to take ownership of it to do so. But there are several methods for removing it, which we'll walk through in the article below.
What Is the Windows.old Folder, and Should You Delete It?
Whenever you upgrade to a new version of Windows 11 (through Windows Update) or perform an in-place Windows upgrade, the operating system creates a Windows.old folder. It holds all of your old system files and personal files, and you can use it to roll back to your previous version of Windows 11 if you want. But the folder takes up a lot of space on the C drive, which can be inconvenient for people who have just upgraded their PC.
Windows 11 automatically deletes Windows.old 30 days after it is created. But if you need that storage right now, you can try any of these methods to remove the folder from your PC.
How to Delete the Windows.old Folder in Windows 11
1. Use Storage Settings
Microsoft introduced Storage Sense with Windows 10, and the feature is still around in Windows 11. It can help you clear temporary files from your PC and also manage OneDrive files. But if you want to clean up manually, you need to open Storage Settings and delete the Windows.old folder from there.
Follow these steps:
- Right-click the Start button to open the Quick Link menu. Click the Setting option.
- Under System settings, scroll down and click the Storage option.
- Wait for Storage to analyze your drive space and files. Then click the Temporary Files option.
- Here, you'll see a list of everything taking up space on the C drive that is no longer needed. Click the Previous Windows Installation(s) checkbox to select it.
- Then click the Remove Files button at the top.
It will take a while to delete the Windows.old folder and the other temporary files on the C drive.
2. Use Disk Cleanup
Even though Storage Sense and the revamped Settings page are a newer concept, the trusty old Disk Cleanup still works. You can use it to find and delete temporary files on Windows 11 and on older operating systems. It doesn't have a modern user interface, but it can help you locate and delete the Windows.old folder, along with other space-hungry items such as Temporary Windows Update files.
Follow these steps to delete the Window.old folder with the Disk Cleanup tool:
- Press Win + R to open the Run dialog. Type cleanmgr and press the Enter key to launch the tool.
- Find the Cleanup system files button and click it. Wait while the utility scans for and locates all the temporary files.
- Scroll through the Files to delete list and find the Previous Windows Installation(s) checkbox. Click it to select it. You can also select other temporary files.
- Click the OK button.
- Confirm your action and click the Delete Files button to delete the Windows.old folder.
3. Use CMD
Follow these steps to delete the Window.old folder with the Command Prompt tool:
- Press Win + R to open the Run dialog. Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Command Prompt with admin rights.
- Enter the following command and press Enter:
takeown /F "C:\Windows.old" /A /R /D Y
- It will take a while to take ownership of all the folders and files. Then type and run the following command:
icacls "C:\Windows.old" /grant *S-1-5-32-544:F /T /C /Q
- Finally, run the following command to delete the folder:
RD /S /Q "C:\Windows.old"
- Close the Command Prompt window.
Good luck!
