The windows.old folder located in the Windows C partition is the folder where old Windows settings previously installed on your computer are backed up and stored.
What is windows.old?
The windows.old folder is a system folder created automatically by Windows where the settings and backups of the previously installed Windows version on your computer or laptop are stored.
How to Delete windows.old?
If you have important files in your Windows before formatting, I recommend you to back up this folder before deleting it.
Deleting the windows.old folder does not cause any errors on your computer, on the contrary, it makes your system run faster and more stable.
Follow the steps below for the deletion process.
- After logging into My Computer and right-clicking on the C: partition, go to Properties.
- Click on the Disk Cleanup section under the General section.
- In the window that opens, click on the System Files Cleanup section.
- Check the Previous Windows installation (upgrades) section and click the OK button.
- When the Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files? warning appears, click on the Delete Files button. Finally, a second warning like the one below may appear, confirm it as well.
Disk Cleanup
If you clean up previous Windows installations or temporary installation files, you will not be able to restore older versions of Windows on the machine. Are you sure you want to do this?
When you follow the steps above, the windows.old folder will be automatically deleted by Windows.
You can review the article published by Windows on Deleting Your Previous Windows Version by clicking on the link below.