I haven't seen this mentioned, but you can go to Settings-System and select Storage, Select the drive on the top and you will see a list of file types.
Go to the bottom and select Temporary files and look for a "Previous Windows Version" entry. Check the box and the select Remove Files...
If you don't have a Windows.old folder you won't have the Previous option.
None of these options worked for me until Saltgrass posted option #4. Worked like a charm. Thank you Saltgrass. I wasn't even aware that you could access your files like that.
Local admin, elevated Command Prompt. Running the attrib command as in Option Two Step 2, no issues. Running rd command thereafter, exactly as told in tutorial (both commands Copy & Paste), all files give Access is denied, nothing will be removed:
Build 14986 PRO. Any ideas?
There have been situations where some file cannot be deleted normally. I had an audio driver file which for some reason had been set so it would not delete.
I am not an expert on taking ownership of a file, but some situations, you may need to take ownership of a folder. Exit out and come back in using the Advanced permissions to add a user or change an owner's permissions to have full control. The inheritance option should be watched closely so the folder permissions will be continued to its contents.
I have some residual driver files (IntcDAud.sys) in windows.old which I can't delete using the method in this tutorial. How do I remove the windows.old folder in my case? See the command prompt errors below.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>attrib -r -a -s -h C:\Windows.old /S /DC:\WINDOWS\system32>C:\WINDOWS\system32>RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%\windows.oldC:\windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\IntcDAud.sys - Access is denied.C:\windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVER~1\FILERE~1\INTCDA~2.INF\IntcDAud.sys - Access is denied.C:\windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVER~1\FILERE~1\INTCDA~2.INF - Access is denied.C:\windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVER~1\FILERE~1 - Access is denied.C:\windows.old\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVER~1 - Access is denied.
I did try option 4 which didn't work but I was then able to fiddle with the permissions and delete the files/ folders. Reading this thread, many people have had problems deleting the offending residual Intel driver IntcDAud.sys which stops windows.old being deleted. IntcDAud.sys is already present in the updated Windows folder so why is it frequently left behind in the windows.old folder which is then hard to delete? This is another example of sloppy software engineering but I don't know who is to blame - MS or Intel?
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