With Windows 10, especially if you are enrolled in the Windows Insider Preview Program, upgrading to a new version of Windows 10 can be very frequent. When you upgrade to a newer release of Windows, by default, Microsoft will keep previous Windows state and store all the files under “Windows.old“. Over time it can accumulate and take up the valuable space on the main drive. We covered how to properly remove Windows.old directory and showed you tips on the new method Microsoft added in Windows 10.
All those are excellent ways to clean up the disk space when it comes to deleting Windows.old folder. However, with recent Windows 10 insider updates, I’ve noticed Windows.old folder stays regardless of which method I used. What’s worse is, with every new Windows 10 insider upgrade Windows.old folders grow into Windows.old(1), Windows.old(2), Windows.old(3) etc … and you cannot delete them from the Windows Explorer!
If you ever take a peek at what’s inside those Windows.old directories, you will notice a repeated pattern. A leaf folder named Micorosft.Windows.Cortana_randomstring is not available and unable to delete due to Item Not Found.
C:\Windows.old(3)\Users\sunhu\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy
If the location is on this PC, make sure the device or drive is connected or the disc is inserted, and then try again. If the location is on a network, make sure you’re connected to the network or Internet, and then try again. If the location still cannot be found, it might have been moved or deleted.
We know that Windows has already removed all the content in Windows.old but with this exception. For some reason, it didn’t remove and we are left with duplicated Windows.old folders.
Fix Windows.old(1) Unable To Delete
We can help Windows to manually remove them even it doesn’t allow us to do so in the Windows Explorer.
Start Command Prompt (cmd) with Administrator privilege, and type
cd C:\
and then enter
rd "Windows.old(1)" /s /q
This will remove whatever is left under “Windows.old(1)” recursively and not prompt you any questions about any subfolders.
Repeat a few more times until you have finished cleaning up all the lingering-around Windows.old directories. This is how to solve and clean up all the Windows.old(1) folders on your Windows 10. Happy insider!
I am running it as admin and still get Access Denied. Any thoughts?
have you already tried to delete the remaining Windows.old via the proper method?
if still doesn’t work you can try to boot Windows 10 into safe mode and run the same command again.
Thanks!
Congratulations, Jonathan! I was wondering how to get rid of all Windows.old folders. It worked just fine. I also was able to join the “Skip Ahead” insider preview, making the changes at the Windows registry. Thanks.
Hi! I checked my “windows.old(1)” folder, and it only has 4 subfolders. inside there are no files, yet when I try both the standard procedure AND your procedure from the prompt, I still get the “impossible to delete. Directory is not empty” message. Any help?
Went through the routine as given in Administrator mode and the result was “The system cannot find the file specified.”
Yet Window.old(1) through Windows.old(8) are still there.
Anymore suggestions?
Did not work for me.
make in powershell (started as admin):
rm \\?\c:\Windows.old\ -Recurse
The key is \\?\
Didn’t work
C:\>rd “Windows.old” /s /q
Windows.old\WINDOWS\WinSxS\AME63C~1.165 – Access is denied.
Windows.old\WINDOWS\WinSxS\AM193B~1.1_N – Access is denied.
Windows.old\WINDOWS\WinSxS\AMD64_~1.281 – Access is denied.
Windows.old\WINDOWS\WinSxS – Access is denied.
rm -Force \\?\c:\Windows.old\ -Recurse
Did the trich for me from an Admin Powershell window
richard – your command was the only one that worked for me – many thanks
Andy
Guys, if nothing helps – try using Unlocker. It helped me
Worked for me, thanks.
Thank you, it worked for me too 🙂
bonjour,
j’ai trouvé une solution simple pour effacer windows.old quand le dossier Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy l’empêche
il suffit de copier dans ce répertoire (qui est un lien symbolique) un fichier texte quelconque
et par la force des choses il recrée ce répertoire et à ce moment-là on peut tout effacer
Thank you. for anyone interested, here is the Google translated version:
“Hello,
I found a simple solution to clear windows.old when the folder Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy prevents it
just copy in this directory (which is a symbolic link) any text file
and by the force of things he recreates this repertoire and at that moment we can erase everything”.