Do you want to delete Windows.old folder?

So you installed a new OS on top of your Windows Vista or Windows 7. A new folder gets created and all the previous Windows related files are put on this folder. This folder is called Windows.old. The most useful documents that this folder contains are your user profile related (“My Documents”, “My Pictures” etc…) documents that you might have forgotten to save before installing a new OS. I have found this life saving at least twice till now!!

 

Let us say that you have saved everything useful and now you want to clean up some space to save some more important things (like movies and games…). You think a simple shift-delete on Windows.old folder would do that. Try it out, 🙂 I know it didn’t let you. Now you are wondering if you are really an administrator on this machine or not. I know you are. But is not letting you do that!! I know till now you have tried it many times and already have had many good things to talk about the OS. 🙂

But don’t come to a conclusion right away. Remember it is a special folder which has life saving capabilities. We have to treat it with respect and have to delete it with proper recommended method. So here is what you should do:

1. Click Start , click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click System Tools.

2. Click Disk Cleanup.
3. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, click Files from all users on this computer.
   Note If the User Account Control dialog box appears, type the administrator password, and then click OK. Otherwise, click Continue.
4. In the Disk Cleanup:Drive Selection dialog box, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK. Wait while the system scans the computer for unnecessary files.
5. Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then look for the Previous Windows installations check box.
6. If you find the Previous Windows installations check box, click to select it, and then click OK.
   If you do not find this check box, go to step 7.
7. When you are prompted to confirm the removal of files, click Delete Files.
8. Wait while the system removes the files. You have now removed the Windows.old folder.

So there you go. You have the extra space you wanted. Now use it as you want. Happy computing.