I was recently perusing my pc's files and folders (which I do to frequently), and I found a 3 year old windows.iso file in system32 folder. Is this normal? I don't remember putting it there. I don't have a problem with space, but do I really need it there? If I were going to use a windows.iso file, I would download a current file from windows website. Suggestions appreciated.
One thing is sure: Windows installation does not contain any ISO files. The fact that you have one in your \Windows\System32 folder simply means that sometime after Windows was installed on that computer, either you or another user of that computer has saved the ISO file there.
The name Windows.iso suggests it is an ISO file created with Windows Media Creation Tool. It being already three years old makes it obsolete.
It is absolutely, completely 100% safe to delete the file. As you said, when you need a current one, you can always download the latest one.
Kari
Thanks for the quick reply, Kari. Your answer mirrored my thoughts exactly. I'm not sure why this was bumped to 'installation and upgrade.' Maybe the title wasn't quite right. But thanks again.
Have you viewed the contents of it to see if its an installation or just a collection of files?
I would right click on it and select Mount. Then use one of these commands from a Elevated Commadn Prompt to see what it was:
dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:x:\sources\install.esd /index:1
OR
dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:x:\sources\install.wim /index:1
where x: is the drive letter it's mounted as.
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