Windows.old folder

Hi: I upgraded to Windows 10 about six months ago, give or take, and everything seems okay except that I find a folder called 'Windows.old' on my system. Some checking tells me that this is where my former version of Windows was shunted after my upgrade, and the usual recommendation is that to remove it I need to use the disk cleanup utility. However, when I run this no "Previous Windows installation(s)" selection appears. And most authorities also claim that the 'Windows.old' folder is automatically removed a month after upgrading. This clearly didn't happen in my case. Can anyone shed any light on how best to remove the folder? It's a pretty huge folder (almost 17 GB), and I could use the real estate.

patk said:

Hi: I upgraded to Windows 10 about six months ago, give or take, and everything seems okay except that I find a folder called 'Windows.old' on my system. Some checking tells me that this is where my former version of Windows was shunted after my upgrade, and the usual recommendation is that to remove it I need to use the disk cleanup utility. However, when I run this no "Previous Windows installation(s)" selection appears. And most authorities also claim that the 'Windows.old' folder is automatically removed a month after upgrading. This clearly didn't happen in my case. Can anyone shed any light on how best to remove the folder? It's a pretty huge folder (almost 17 GB), and I could use the real estate.

I blundered. For some reason I missed the "Previous Windows installation(s)" selection when I ran the disk cleanup utility. It was there, and I was able to remove the folder safely.