How to Delete Windows.old and $Windows.~BT folders in Windows 10  

Brink said:

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.

I tried with winpe8.1 boot usb stick and tried deleting that folder both in explorer and admn command prompt. There also in explorer I got message access denied and in cmd, got msg, You need permissions of System

I finally managed to delete it by booting directly to a Command Prompt in the Advanced boot settings. Everything else I tried didn't work.

RCK

rkennedy01 said:

I finally managed to delete it by booting directly to a Command Prompt in the Advanced boot settings. Everything else I tried didn't work.

RCK

To me that also did not work.

Finally I booted to live ubuntu and from there I deleted Windows.old folder.

gehrkes said:

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 tried this but it ended with a corrupted MBR so my computer stopped working. Have it fixed but now I am hesitating to use a Linux option like

I upgraded an old notebook from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and found this Windows.old folder with 30.2 GB of disk space!

Take ownership of it and then run Disk Cleanup as an Admin. That worked for me.


https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

Gary said:

Take ownership of it and then run Disk Cleanup as an Admin. That worked for me.

Gary you hit the nail with a hammer. After an upgrade some bits of Windows.old are owned by SYSTEM user and cleanmgr will not delete them. If you take ownership it works fine.