Unless you're constantly running low on space, running it monthly should be a good place to start. Open the Run Storage Sense drop-down menu to determine how frequently the feature should run-Every day, Every week, Every month, or During low free disk space. You can then determine how often the tool will run and when temporary files and downloads will automatically be deleted. You can also check other types of files you want to remove from your hard drive to free up space here.If you want to better configure the Storage Sense feature, click the Configure Storage Sense or run it now link. In the Disk Cleanup window, click the “Clean Up System Files” button.Ĭheck the “Previous Windows installation(s)” option in the list. RELATED: 7 Ways To Free Up Hard Disk Space On Windows To launch it, open the Start menu, search for “Disk Cleanup,” and press Enter. Disk Cleanup is now deprecated, but is still available in Windows 10.
You can also use the Disk Cleanup tool to clean things up for you.
How to Delete the Windows.old Folder Using Disk Cleanup Otherwise, it’s safe to delete all the types of data here if your PC is working properly, but bear in mind that the “Delete files in my recycle bin if they have been there for over” option will erase the files you have in your Recycle Bin.
If you don’t see this option in the list, either you’ve already deleted these files, or Windows 10 has already deleted them for you.Ĭlick “Clean Now” to delete the previous versions of Windows and anything else you’ve chosen to remove with Storage Sense.īear in mind that the “Delete files in my Downloads folder if they have been there for over” option will remove files in your Downloads folder, which you may not want to do. Scroll down and check the “Delete previous versions of Windows” option here. By default, Storage Sense will also delete files more than 30 days old in your Recycle Bin when you run it. RELATED: Use Windows 10's New "Free Up Space" Tool to Clean Up Your Hard DriveĬheck the other settings here. To access it, head to Settings > System > Storage > Configure Storage Sense or Run It Now. Starting with Windows 10’s April 2018 Update, you can now erase these files using the new “Free Up Space” tool in Settings. In fact, some of the system files you need to remove are located outside of the Windows.old folder, anyway. You don’t need to delete the Windows.old folder by hand, and you shouldn’t. If everything seems to be working fine after a few days, you can go ahead and remove these files. How to Delete the Windows.old Folder Using
You can go back to the last build of Windows 10 you had installed by navigating to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and using the “Get Started” button under “Go back to the previous version of Windows 10.” This button is only present if the files are still available on your computer. If you have some issue with the new version of Windows 10 on your hardware, you won’t be able to “go back” to the previous build without completely reinstalling Windows after you wipe these files. Warning: You should only do this if your PC seems to be working properly.