[SOLVED] Suddenly Windows.old folder created

[Dawis67_AE]

Hi.

Just got back from holidays, been away for 3 months from my PC, and recently had a pretty heavy windows update.



Today i noticed that my already tiny SSD with windows on it, had only 13 Gb memory left, while i try to keep it at 30Gb. So i investigated with WinDirStat, and found out that suddenly i have Windows.old folder. I havent reinstalled windows, or installed any other version, and from my understanding Windows.old is like the saved previous windows installation.



My question is, where it came from? The update? Well that what i suspect created it. Also is it safe to delete it. I compared it to my current "Windows" folder, and it has different contents than the Windows.old. Are there some dependencies that are needed from Windows.old, so that i cant delete it?



I would appreciate input.

 

[tennis2]

Did you just get the Windows 10 build 2004 update?

 

[wpgwpg]

The Windows.Old folder is created by major updates, so yes that was created by the update. You can't just delete it like most folders, but if you start File Explorer, right-click on the C: drive, and then click Properties, you'll see the Disk Cleanup for OS window. From there click Clean up system files. When it presents you with a list of candidates for deletion, click on the one with the updates and then click OK. I recommend making a full system backup before doing that.

 

[punkncat]

Well...you can 'just delete it' but it take a little doing. If you are an average Joe user, I wouldn't.
The .old folder is left there just in case you need to roll back the install/upgrade. It will as a natural course of OS operation, delete itself before too long. Unless you are short on drive space it is best left alone by the average user.