Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Skip Ahead Build 17004 for PC Insider

0.0.17013.1000 (rs_prerelease.171004-1538)

Above was compiled last Weds. I have a feeling (deep inside :)) that Build 17015 compiled last Friday will be the latest Skippy build this year and will be released next week. We will see

Kari said:

Same method deletes that, too.




I am an old school purist. I simply cannot understand, never have why should I use a third party tool for something Windows is totally capable of doing by itself?




I was talking about booting to Command Prompt, not Safe Mode. Apples and oranges.

In those extremely few cases I've had a really stubborn file or folder that seems to be impossible to remove even when booting to Command Prompt, booting from WinPE or Windows install media instead, launching Command Prompt with SHIFT + F10, removing system and read only attributes with attrib command and finally using rd /s /q FOLDER_PATH or del FILE_PATH will for sure remove it / them.

Kari

You misinterpret my post. I was saying even if I went to command prompt in safe mode (having failed in normal command mode), it would still not delete.

Then it is easier to use a winpe environment (or even live linux drive).

Sure you can use command prompt in winpse mode, but as I always have Macrium Reflect Free as a boot entry, I just boot to that in its winpse mode and use its file explorer as simplest solution which always works.

slicendice said:

Guys, you with windows.old issues.

Write the folowing command using elevated Command Prompt after you have run FULL disk cleanup on C:

Code:

dir /s /x c:\windows.o* > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\winold.txt

Post the winold.txt file found on your desktop, here and I take a look what could be done...

I must have been tired yesterday when I posted this. That command does not do what I intended.

I have now written a script that does what I wanted it to do. Download it, take a look at it, extract/copy it to C:\ and run it if you think it's safe, then post the .txt file output here. (not a screenshot, but the actual file)

Only thing the script does, is it finds all windows.old and windows.old(xxx) folders and list all their content and sub-content to a text file on your desktop.

ListWinOld.zip

   Information

Since this issue is not always so simple as it would seem, if I have time, I will attempt to write a tutorial and a few script that should be able to successfully delete these folders and any other problematic folders.

cereberus said:

You misinterpret my post.

@Martin, with all due respect, I do not think I misinterpret it. Booting to Safe Mode with Command Prompt (Advanced Startup Options > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Start-up settings > Option 6) boots in Safe Mode from HDD, the system disk. All usual permissions and such apply. Visible telltale is that Safe Mode Command Promt opens in folder C:\Windows\System32.

If a file or folder is locked even from built-in administrator in normal mode Windows, it will most probably remain locked also in Safe Mode Command Prompt.

Booting to Command Prompt (Advanced Startup Options > Troubleshoot > Advanced Option > Command Prompt) is then completely another story. It boots from recovery console RAM disk opening in X:\Windows\System32, X: drive being in RAM, not on HDD. System disk is "free", not involved in boot process. Removing of locked items will work.

DISKPART is a good example to see the difference. As DISKPART cannot even see the RAM disk X: when booted to Command Prompt, you can clean the whole HDD, repartition it, do whatever you like to. Try the same from Safe Mode Command Prompt, it will most probably brick your Windows installation but does not let you clean and repartition the system disk.

DavidY said:

In this context, NVidia drivers are indeed third-party drivers and would be listed by this command even if the /all parameter isn't used.

@DavidY, in that context Microsoft is using term "third party" to describe that the device driver is from a third party manufacturer as in "not from Microsoft". However, if you think it logically, if the driver is from device manufacturer, the one they have intended to be used with the device, it couldn't be more "first party". It most definitely cannot be compared to using third party software for common tasks in Windows, or booting / using Linux or any other operating system.

Kari

Kari said:

@Martin, with all due respect, I do not think I misinterpret it. Booting to Safe Mode with Command Prompt (Advanced Startup Options > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Start-up settings > Option 6) boots in Safe Mode from HDD, the system disk. All usual permissions and such apply. Visible telltale is that Safe Mode Command Promt opens in folder C:\Windows\System32.

If a file or folder is locked even from built-in administrator in normal mode Windows, it will most probably remain locked also in Safe Mode Command Prompt.

Booting to Command Prompt (Advanced Startup Options > Troubleshoot > Advanced Option > Command Prompt) is then completely another story. It boots from recovery console RAM disk opening in X:\Windows\System32, System disk is "free", not involved in boot process. Removing of locked items will work.

DISKPART is a good example to see the difference. As DISKPART cannot even see the RAM disk X: when booted to Command Prompt, you can clean the whole HDD, repartition it, do whatever you like to. Try the same from Safe Mode Command Prompt, it will most probably brick your Windows installation but does not let you clean and repartition the system disk.

Kari

Ah that is much clearer now - thank you.

However, I doubt I would actually bother as it is so simple and quick to boot to Reflect and use it's file explorer. It also has its own C drive (X really) which is essentially the same as you describe above.

Additionally, for some inexplicable reason, my laptop takes ages to boot into the advanced menus, whereas booting to Reflect is much quicker.

@Martin, with all due respect, I do not think I misinterpret it. Booting to Safe Mode with Command Prompt (Advanced Startup Options > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Start-up settings > Option 6) boots in Safe Mode from HDD, the system disk. All usual permissions and such apply. Visible telltale is that Safe Mode Command Promt opens in folder C:\Windows\System32.

Certainly you can do all of the above the way describe. However if I want access to those options I can just run a third party program like Winaero tweaker which will enable me to open the advanced boot options at every boot - just press enter to continue a normal boot. There's no doubt that the X: drive is very handy in some emergency situations. A recent example accessing it from my wife's Windows 7 machine in order to run chkdsk /r.

cereberus said:

I have certainly seen a windows.old that could not be deleted from a command prompt as some files were held on to by system even in safe mode, and had to deleted from a winpse environment.

Kari said:

Same method deletes that, too.
In those extremely few cases I've had a really stubborn file or folder that seems to be impossible to remove even when booting to Command Prompt, booting from WinPE or Windows install media instead, launching Command Prompt with SHIFT + F10, removing system and read only attributes with attrib command and finally using rd /s /q FOLDER_PATH or del FILE_PATH will for sure remove it / them.

Kari

Sometimes there are cases where this is not the solution. RD command as is does not delete the windows.old folder, no matter from which medium you run it from. It sure works to use a WINPE media if a file or folder is just locked.

Here's the file. Slice. I trusted you all the way. :)

Attachment 157059

Attachment 157060

@HippsieGypsie

Run this in CMD:

Code:

CLS
CD C:\windows.old(1)\Users\unca_\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy
RENAME LOCALS~2 D
RD /S /Q D
DIR
CD C:\
RD /S /Q windows.old(1)

Copy all the output here.