How to delete the windows old folder (old Windows). Removing old Windows after installing a new one - step-by-step instructions

If you installed a new Windows operating system (any version), now when you try to turn on your computer, you probably first see a menu with the choice of the desired OS. This occurs if the hard drive has not been formatted. To prevent this from happening again, just remove the unnecessary version and only one version of Windows will remain on your computer.

Formatting a partition is the simplest and most obvious way

This is an easy way to remove a second operating system that you no longer need. The point of the procedure is to format the partition containing the extra operating system on the hard drive.

Before starting any actions, download information that is important to you onto removable media or one of your hard drives.

How do you know which Windows folder to leave and which to keep? For these purposes, go to the Start menu and select “Run” there. You need to enter the following command into the line - %windir%. Now click "Ok". As a result of your actions, a folder will appear. You need to remember it - this is exactly the folder that cannot be deleted. It may look like this: “C: Windows”. This working folder cannot be deleted or moved to other partitions, otherwise the operation of the entire system will be disrupted and you will have to roll back.

Reboot the system and make sure that the second OS is no longer there. If, when trying to format a disk, the system gives an error, then you can try using additional utilities for such operations, for example, the Acronis Disc Director program. It needs to be downloaded, installed and launched. It will delete everything itself, and then automatically reboot the system.

How to remove unnecessary OS from boot

This instruction is suitable if you have seven or eight installed. It happens that the second operating system, namely its files, no longer exists, but it appears in downloads. To remove Windows from boot, follow these steps:

Now the download will begin with the version of Windows that you decided to keep.

How to remove seven or eight if you upgraded to ten

If you decide to upgrade to the latest version of Windows, then at the same time you need to clear the disk space. But do this only if you are completely satisfied with the new version of the OS and do not intend to return to older versions.

Usually, a standard utility for deleting old (temporary or junk) files is sufficient for these purposes. For example, CCleaner. But if the previous version is still taking up space, then follow the steps that will remove the remnants of the old OS completely.

Go to the taskbar and search for “Disk Cleanup”. Select the desired shortcut.
In the tab, mark all temporary data and enable the clear function.
To delete data from the previous system, click on the “Clean up system files” option. It is located at the bottom left.
You will need to select the disk on which the old operating system is located.
When you see all the files you need to delete, there will be a “Previous Windows installations” item. This is the item you need to select.
Clean and reboot the computer.

After these steps, it is already very difficult to roll back to the previous version of Windows, so make sure that you decide to permanently leave Windows 10.

How to remove old Windows without programs

Let's say you have Windows XP, and you are happy with it, but Windows 7 is interfering. Maybe it’s the other way around - we’re happy with Seven, but we don’t like XP. In any case, how to remove an old, unnecessary operating system?

This method will allow you to remove the old version without using programs - manually.

After this, Windows.old will be deleted as a regular file folder.

How to edit boot.ini

If we are not talking about Windows Vista or seven, then loading the operating system begins with the boot.ini file. It is written in it:

wait information when download option is selected;
information about the operating system that is turned on first by default if the user does not make a choice:
Extra options.

Thus, one of the ways to remove the old operating system is to change the boot.ini file.

As always, we start by loading into the version of the operating system that should remain the only one on the computer.

Find “My Computer” on the desktop and click to open the characteristics.
Select “Properties” - look for the “Advanced” option.
Next we find “Download and Recovery”. Click on “Parameters”.
In the new window, select “Edit”. The boot.ini file will open using Notepad. It is very advisable at this stage to save a copy of this file just in case and put it on one of the disks. Don't forget to rename it - Boot.old. Now you can forget about the copy and return to the boot.ini file for editing.
Find a line in the file indicating that the menu displays two operating systems to choose from. It needs to be removed.
Now let's save the changes we just made. Click “Save As”, keeping the name as it was originally.

Close all tabs and restart your computer. Now there will be only one operating system.

How to remove unnecessary Windows XP?

Windows XP has its own characteristics, which must be taken into account when uninstalling.

We boot into the operating system that we plan to keep.

On the “My Computer” icon, look for the “Properties” option using the right mouse button.
Now find “Advanced”. There will be a “Options” function.
We mark the operating system that we plan to remove and confirm our actions.
Let's go to the section where the old Windows is located.
We delete the Windows folder, editing with program files and Documents and Settings. There will be pop-up warnings indicating that these are system files and that they are read-only. You can safely ignore them and continue deleting.

Now all that remains is to edit the boot.ini file, because when you boot your computer you may still see two operating systems to choose from.

Windows.old removal video

If you still have any questions about deleting this impressive folder, watch the video.

As you can see, the old interfering operating system, if it is no longer needed, can be removed. Depending on which OS is installed, the removal operation has its own characteristics, but in general, almost all methods are suitable. You just need to understand the nuances and carefully follow all the steps. After rebooting, you will successfully get rid of the problem.

Which can take up several gigabytes of disk space. Moreover, in the boot menu, previous versions of Windows continue to hang, prompting the user to boot from them. In addition, they clog the PC hard drive and slow down its operation. So, how to remove old Windows?

Via the disk cleanup menu

You can remove the old version of Windows using the Disk Cleanup utility, which is available in all Microsoft operating systems, including Windows 10

Go to “Computer” and right-click on the icon of the section where the previous version was. Select “Properties”, then “Disk Cleanup”.

The system will begin scanning this partition for trash files; Among them will be the item “Previous Windows installations”

Make sure it is ticked.
Confirm deletion. Windows will ask you again if you want to continue the operation - click OK. After a few minutes, the utility will notify you that all trash files have been deleted.

The Disk Cleanup utility can be called in another way: left-click the “Start” manipulator and enter the word “Cleanup” in the search bar (works also for Windows 10/Windows 8.1). In the list that appears, select Disk Cleanup. Click the “Enter” button. The utility will prompt you to select the partition where the cleaning operation will be performed.

The previous version of Windows can be detected and removed using other cleaning programs. You can use, for example, CCleaner, the latest version of which has been optimized to work with Windows 10. You can also install other utilities - Glary Utilities, IOBit Advanced Care, and so on. The main thing is that they support working with windows 10/8.1/7.

Removing the “windows.old” folder and adjusting the boot menu

It happens that neither a standard Windows cleaner nor a third-party one can find old files. This leads to the fact that the user has to look for the “windows.old” folder himself, delete it, and then, through the Windows boot configuration menu, disable the function of selecting a version that no longer exists. But for this you need to install system administrator rights

How to do it? It’s very simple: press the Win+R key combination, enter secpol.msc and click “Enter”. In the left menu that appears, double-click on “Local Policies”, then “Security Settings”. After that, now in the right window, look for the item “Accounts: State “Administrator”. Double-click on it and switch from “Disabled” to “Enabled” and save the changes.

After this, you need to reboot and launch the new (not old!) version of the operating system. After the main boot stage, Windows will prompt you to log in through two accounts, including the administrator. We go through it. That's it, now you can play around with the system as a system administrator.

Now you need to use Explorer to go to the section where the “windows.old” folder is located and delete it. To do this, right-click on the icon of this folder and select “Properties”. Then you need to click on “Security” and then on “Advanced”. Among the proposed tabs, select “Owner”, click the “Change” button and select the account from which the deletion will be carried out. Save the changes with the “Apply” button and click “OK”.

A message will appear indicating that we have become the owner of this directory. Click "OK". Now you can delete the “windows.old” folder (after moving it further to the “Trash”, this directory must be removed from there too).

Now you need to go to the boot configuration menu. Press the Win+R key combination, enter msconfig and click “Enter”. Go to the “Download” tab and select previous versions of Windows. Click the “Delete” button

Many laptops and personal computers come with pre-installed operating systems. If you've been using Windows for several years, chances are it will stop working as quickly as it used to. Over time, the OS becomes overgrown with many errors, which can take too long to fix manually. In this case, the best option would be to reinstall. This article describes how to remove Windows from your computer and then install a new version.

If Windows was installed on one drive and then you purchased a new one, you can simply install the OS on it. In this case, your personal computer will have 2 operating systems at once: new and old. This is often done by users who want to take advantage of solid-state drives. Just connect a new drive and install Windows on it, as described in many guides.

Deleting files manually

After this, you need to remove the old OS from the laptop. This is necessary for two reasons. Firstly, it takes up a lot of space on your disk. Secondly, when booting, you will constantly have to choose which version of Windows to boot from. This is very inconvenient: you can accidentally confuse the version, and then wait until everything reboots.

The most effective way to delete it is to completely format the partition. Its disadvantage is that absolutely everything will be deleted. Any file, each program on this media will be irretrievably lost.

If only a few gigabytes of important information are stored on the disk, this is not a problem. You can temporarily move it to a new (system) drive, transfer it to a flash drive, or upload it to cloud storage.

Otherwise, you will have to delete all unnecessary data manually. To remove the OS from your personal computer or laptop, you need to delete the folder called “Windows”. After this, you can clear the space from programs. After installing the new system, the old programs will no longer work and will have to be installed again. Therefore, the contents of the “Program Files” and “Program Files x86” directories (if you have a 64-bit OS installed) can be safely sent to the trash.

Formatting a disk using Windows

If something important is missing on the old system HDD, or you managed to copy all the information to a safe place, it is recommended to use formatting. During this process, all data along with the markup will be destroyed, after which the disk will be re-marked.

After formatting, you will probably feel how much faster your computer has become. The difference will be even more significant than after defragmentation. It's easy to start this process. Just follow the provided guide:

You can also do this using the Windows console:

Formatting during installation

If you are going to reinstall Windows on the same HDD on which the system is currently located, the steps will be slightly different. You will not be able to remove a running Windows using its own tools. You can try formatting drive C - the computer itself will tell you about it.

Fortunately, Microsoft developers foresaw this and created a formatting tool right on the installation disk. Begin installing the operating system as usual, following the instructions.

After installing a new operating system on top of or in parallel (in another partition) the previous one, the question arises of how to get rid of the remnants of the old version. The old Windows, if installed on the same partition, gets the name Windows.old and does not interfere with the main system. If the old operating system is installed on another partition, then the folder name remains the same, but this also does not interfere with the new system. Everything seems to be fine, but there are two problems. Firstly, the old system takes up useful space and the volume can be more than impressive. Secondly, it is present in the boot menu, which we see when we turn on the computer. How to get rid of old Windows?

Why can't you just delete old files?

Old system files cannot be simply deleted. The problem is that the user of the current version of Windows does not have access to the folder. Usually this message appears.

Attention! Proceed with deleting old Windows directories and Program Files only after you have transferred all their data to the new Windows!

If the new system is installed on the same partition as the old one

In this case, we just need to clean out the old system files, including the Windows.old folder. To do this, we use the Disk Cleanup program, which is included with the operating system. can be found on the Microsoft website.

By the way, you can delete a number of other service files in the same way.

If the new system is installed on a different partition

Removing old Windows from the boot menu

To put things in order in the boot menu, open “Advanced system settings” (to do this, click Win-Pause and select the item of the same name).

Now uncheck the “Display list of systems...” checkbox. All: the old operating system will not appear in the boot menu when the computer starts.

For those who like to control all launch parameters, we offer a method with direct editing of this menu. Press Win+R and write msconfig in the window that appears.

We simply remove the old system from the list.

Removing old system files

Now let’s move on to deleting the Windows directory of the old system itself. To do this, find it on the disk and open the folder properties.

Here we select “Security” and click on the “Advanced” button.

To become the owner of the folder, enter the username under which you work in the field indicated in the picture.

Don’t forget to check the “Replace owner of subcontainers and objects” and “Replace all records...” checkboxes, click OK.

You are now the owner of the folder and have the power to delete the directory. During deletion, a message like this may appear.

Check the “Run for everyone...” checkbox and click Continue.

Remember that after deleting old system files, there will be no way back. So don't rush into it. First, make sure that all the programs and data you need are transferred to the new system.

"(BSOD) and freezes, at times, can change its operation beyond recognition or even stop functioning altogether. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number of requests from Internet users “how to remove old Windows” is constantly increasing.

Windows OS can last for years for those who limit themselves to working in office applications, viewing multimedia files, and the programs they use are not even updated. It's a different matter for those who like to experiment with new programs. Exactly for them the question of removing old Windows is most relevant.

When a new Windows OS is installed on top of the old operating system or in another partition parallel to it, it becomes very important that not a trace remains of the old version. The previous Windows system is called Windows.old, and does not interfere with the main system.

But there are two problems here:

The impressive volume of the old system while occupying the right space;
The presence in the boot menu of an inscription about the old Windows.

Or maybe you are simply planning to change the operating system, for example, to Linux. All this pushes you to get rid of the old Windows OS As soon as possible.

According to statistics, old Windows XP is uninstalled much more often than Windows 7. It is also worth knowing that deleting the Windows.old folder is an irreversible process. For different versions of Windows OS, the windows and sequence of actions may differ slightly, but, in general, the principle is the same.

There are 3 main methods to remove a previous Windows system from your PC. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Method No. 1

Widely used for Windows 7, but not suitable for Windows XP. You need to insert the disk with the installation distribution into the disk drive, and then begin the installation. A message will appear indicating that an old system has been detected that is stored in the Windows.old folder.

The process will not affect important data, because old system folders and files will simply be moved. If something happens, you can easily restore them. If desired, the Windows.old directory can be completely deleted.

Method number 2

Not accessible to everyone due to its specificity. Try booting from a different hard drive. There should be no problems with deleting the old version of Windows, since it is visible in Explorer and you can delete any of its directories. However, the presence of two stationary hard drives on one computer is extremely rare.

Method number 3

A universal option based on downloading a smaller version of Windows, called Windows PE. You can boot from a CD or, more popularly, from a flash drive.

But the functionality of the system is extremely limited, so it is quite difficult to obtain video. However, you can work with the file system in full. After loading the LiveCD, it is recommended to erase the old Windows. The hard drive may not be displayed in the PE system.

Therefore, simply change the operating mode of the disk subsystem in the BIOS to IDE with AHCI. If the erasing process is unsuccessful, then you just need to change the access rights using the commands “Folder Options” - “Security”, and then “Advanced”.

The easiest way to remove the old Windows 7 activator is through its installer. Don’t forget to disable software protection using the “Control Panel” services, then “Administrative Tools” and finally “Services”.

In general, to delete the Windows.old folder, you need to open the Disk Cleanup program using the Start button. In the search field you need to enter “Disk Cleanup”, then in the list of results select the item of the same name “Disk Cleanup”.

Then the Windows OS drive is selected, after which the “OK” button is pressed. Go to the “Disk Cleanup” tab and click the “Clean up system files” button. Be sure to select the “Previous Windows installations” checkbox for all files to be deleted, and then click “OK”. A message box will then appear where you simply click on “Delete Files”.

Also, to completely remove the second or older version of Windows from your computer’s hard drive, a simple but very effective program called NanWick Windows Uninstaller is suitable.

Applicable for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and 8. Effectively removes unnecessary files associated with previous versions of the OS and folders on all subpartitions of the disk and in the boot menu. After making copies of the necessary data, proceed to install the program through the installer.