How to Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 11

Windows takes up a lot of space on your C drive. After pushing more bloatware updates and some big software, your C drive can run out of space very quickly. You may have noticed a folder named “Windows.old” in your system drive. If you check its size, it can easily eat up 8GB or more of your storage.

It is not possible to simply delete a folder and you need to take ownership of the folder to do so. But you can delete a folder using several methods which we will discuss in the article below.

What is the Windows.old folder and should you delete it?

Whenever you upgrade to a new version of Windows (via Windows Update) or perform an in-place Windows upgrade, the operating system creates a Windows.old folder. It contains all your old system and personal files, and you can use it to revert to an older version of Windows if you want. But this folder takes up a lot of space on your C drive, which can be inconvenient for users who have just upgraded their PC.

Windows will automatically delete Windows.old 30 days after it was created. But if you need that storage space right now, you can try any of these methods to remove the folder from your PC.

How to Delete Windows.old Folder in Windows 11

1. Using Storage Settings

Microsoft introduced Storage Sense with Windows 10 and it is still there in Windows 11. It can help you delete temporary files from your PC and also manage OneDrive files. But if you want to clean it up manually, you need to go to Storage Settings and delete the Windows.old folder from there.

Follow these steps:

1. Right-click the Start button to open the Quick Link menu . Click the Setting option .
2. In the System settings section, scroll down and click on the Storage option .
3. Wait for Storage to analyze your disk space and files. Then click the Temporary Files option .
4. Here you will see a list of all the items that are taking up space on your C drive and are no longer needed. Click on the Previous Windows Installation(s) checkbox to select it.
5. Then click the Remove Files button at the top.

It will take a while to delete the Windows.old folder and other temporary files on drive C.

2. Use Disk Cleanup

While Storage Sense and its revamped settings are a new concept, the old trusty Disk Cleanup still works. You can use it to find and delete temporary files on Windows 11 and older operating systems. It doesn’t have a modern UI, but it can help you locate and delete the Windows.old folder and other space-hogging folders like Temporary Windows Update files.

Follow these steps to delete the Window.old folder using the Disk Cleanup tool:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box . Type cleanmgr and press Enter to launch the tool.

2. Find the Cleanup system files button and click on it. Wait for the utility to scan and locate all temporary files.

3. Scroll down the Files to delete list and find the Previous Windows Installation(s) check box . Click it to select it. You can also select other temporary files.

4. Click the OK button.

5. Confirm your action and click the Delete Files button to delete the Windows.old folder.

3. Using CMD

Follow these steps to delete the Window.old folder using the Command Prompt tool:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box. Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Command Prompt with admin rights .

2. Type the following command and press Enter :

takeown /F "C:\Windows.old" /A /R /D Y

3. It will take a while to take ownership of all the folders and files. Then type and execute the following command:

icacls "C:\Windows.old" /grant *S-1-5-32-544:F /T /C /Q

4. Finally, execute the following command to delete the directory:

RD /S /Q "C:\Windows.old"

5. Close the Command Prompt window.