What is Windows.old folder?

Question

I noticed that Windows.old folder appears after every update. This folder weighs about 15-20 Gigabyte and I cannot delete it

Answer 1

Hi 김동우z,

I'm Jin, a fellow Windows 10 user and an independent advisor. I can see that you are concerned with the Windows.old folder.

This is folder is stores the important Windows files before updating or upgrading your device. This folder is usually necessary when performing system restore or rolling back to the previous version of Windows.

You can delete this by running Disk Cleanup and marking clean up system files. You can permanently avoid getting this folder when you disable System Restore (Not Recommended).

I hope this will help.

Answer 2

Hello,

When you refresh Windows 10, upgrade to Windows 10, or custom install Windows 10 on the same partition as the previous Windows installation without doing a clean install, then you will have a C:\Windows.old folder in your new installation afterwards.

If you choose to “Keep nothing”, your personal files are temporarily saved to the Windows.old folder, and will be automatically deleted in 10 days after the date you upgraded by default.

The Windows.old folder will also contain a copy of the previous Windows installation, and can be quite large in size.

The tutorial below can help show you how to safely delete the Windows.old folder if you do not want it.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2066-delete-windows-old-folder-windows-10-a.html