Windows.old created after Windows 11 upgrade

Question

After upgrading to window 11 there is a folder created in C drive named Windows.Old and it is consuming 18 GB?
What does this folder contain and can I delete it? What does Microsoft suggest..

Answer 1

Windows.old is created during windows featured upgrades.

It is automatically deleted in approximately 10 days after the upgrade.

It allows end users to rollback during the 10 day period.

The 10 day period can be extended before the 10th day up to 60 days.

If you are happy with the upgrade then it can be deleted.

If you want to test drive the upgrade longer than 10 days then any duration of time can be chose up to 60 days.

Then during the 60 day maximum adjustment it can be extended again up to another 60 days.

One or more of these links may be useful:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/111315-set-number-days-can-go-back-previous-version-windows.html

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

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Please remember to vote and to mark the replies as answers if they help.

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Answer 2

If you're sure you don't want to rollback to a previous version, you can delete it
(Windows will ask you if you want to delete if when your disk space is low)

Answer 3

had there been some warning - I could have extended. Instead, MS deleted with no recourse. UNBELIEVABLY poor design choice.
Since this was a reinstall to repair Win11, all previous application settings went poof before I could recover them.

At least the User directory survived the MS purge.

Thanks...