Delete windows.old

How do you delete the massive "windows.old" file, a leftover from the previous operating system.

Select it -->hit Delete-->Wave bu-bye

or

Is it giving you an error message when you try to delete it? If so you may need to "Take Ownership" of the beastie.

There is a registry mod out there to add the option to Take Ownership to your right-click menu. Go HERE to download "Take Ownership.zip" and install the .reg file by double clicking on the "InstallTakeOwnership.reg" file. It should come with a separate file called "UnInstallTakeOwnership.reg" for removal of the option.

Then you right click on the Windows.old directory and hit "Take Ownership" and then you should be able to delete it.

Make sure you have everything you want out of the .old directory(pics,docs, vids etc) first, and that you will not want to go back to your previous system, because once you delete Windows.old, you will not be able to roll-back.

Welcome to the forum!!

As well as deleting it directly as mentioned above, you can also delete it through Disk Cleanup and select 'Cleanup System Files'.