How do I delete the hidden windows.old folder?

When installing Windows Vista, Windows stores any existing installation of Windows on the install partition inside a hidden folder called windows.old. This folder could take up a large amount of disk space.

Note: Please check the contents of the windows.old folder before deleting it to make sure there are no files stored there that you may wish to keep.

Deleting the window.old folder using the disk cleanup wizard

  • Click start
  • Type: disk cleanup
  • Press enter
  • Select "Files from all users on this computer"
  • Follow the rest of the instructions listed on the wizard and select the option to delete the windows.old folder

Deleting the windows.old folder manually

1) Open an elevated command prompt

  • Click start
  • Type: cmd
  • right-click it under programs
  • click Run As Administrator

2) Take ownership

  • Change the directory to the windows.old folder (e.g. cd c:\windows.old)
  • Type: takeown /F . /A /R /D Y > NUL

3) grant yourself permission

  • Type: icacls . /grant:r Administrators:(F) /T /L /Q

4) Delete everything

Make sure you close any explorer or command windows that are looking at or inside the windows.old folder (except for the command window you are using). If you don't, you will receive an error while performing this step.

  • Type: cd ..
  • Type: rmdir /S /Q windows.old