You could try taking ownership and setting permissions to "Allow" "Full control" to see if you may be able to afterwards.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html
Permissions - Allow or Deny Access to Users and Groups in Windows 8
I had exactly the same problem when updating from 10166 to 10240 (and in previous updates), what I did find was that after a while the Windows.old folder does get deleted. I ran Disk Cleanup after every boot and somewhere along the line the folder got nuked, my advice would be to have a little bit of patience and keep running Disk Cleanup after every boot, eventually Windows.old will go. I also ran CCleaner (choosing Windows.old only) so that may have helped.
Have you tried deleting it in a command prompt at boot (not safe mode) to see if it may delete there since it wouldn't be in use?
HI,
First my compliments to this great forum!
I tried to remove the windows.old dir using the method with cleanmgr. This removed about all from this directory, except for the two user directories in it. So the folder remained on C: A second attempt showed that the folder was no longer shown in the list of removable systemfiles. After that I used the method of the command prompt at boot. In the command prompt screen I went to C: and the windows.old folder is shown. When I entered 'del windows.old' the system asked for confirmation I tell it Y but after that the dir was still there.
What is the next method to get rid of this dir?
Hello
Completely new here. I tried everything to get rid of windows.old. It didn't work or was too complicated.
I found a much easier way to delete it: Get a program like Parted Magic which boots from disc and have a file explorer in it. Delete windows.old, thats it. Since two days I found no bugs in Win 10 because I have done this.
Hope it helps
Stefan
I booted to Command prompt using settings|update & security|recovery|advanced options.
When I did rd /s /q C:\windows.old, I got message folder is not empty.
I thought I will cd to last folder and del file.
I could go up to Driver store folder. When I cd File repository, I get msg Access denied.
If able, try booting from installation media instead, then open a command prompt at boot like in OPTION ONE. This way you will be completely outside the OS.
Quote