Then in the Disk Cleanup – Drive Selection dialog, click on the hard disk where the the Windows.old folder is and click OK. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog, make sure to check the Files from all users on this computer box. Make sure you right-click on Disk Cleanup and choose Run As Administrator. Windows Vista InstructionsĬlick on Start, then All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then Disk Cleanup.

Scroll down until you find one labeled Older versions of Windows or Previous Windows installations and click OK.Īs you can see, it’s normally quite a large amount of data that gets taken up by previous installations of Windows.

The system will perform a second scan of files that need to be cleaned up and will take a bit longer.įinally, a dialog will pop up with another set of checkboxes. Now click on the button Cleanup system files button at the bottom. The system will perform a scan and another dialog will pop up with the selection. If that’s the only drive on your computer, it won’t even ask you to choose. First, open Disk Cleanup via the Start Menu (click Start and type in disk cleanup) and when the dialog pops up, choose the drive that has the. If you are in Windows 7/8/10 and want to delete the Windows.old folder, the process is fairly straightforward. If you are in Windows Vista still, follow the second set of instructions. The first method will describe how to delete the Windows.old folder on Windows 7/8/10. So how do you get rid of the folder? Well, you have to use the Disk Cleanup utility! Here’s how to go about it. Also, the Windows.old folder gets created when you install those big bi-annual updates for Windows 10. You will have to stick with the new version of Windows. Note: Removing the Windows.old folder will result in your inability to be able to revert back to the previous OS installed.

Remove windows vista operating system