If you have performed a refresh of your Windows 8 PC or installed Windows 8 in such a way that the drive isn’t formatted, a folder named Windows.old is automatically created in the Windows installation drive. This folder contains the installation files of previous Windows. It can be very large in size and you might want to delete it to acquire free space. Please note that you must be signed in an administrator account to delete this Windows.old folder.
First of all, please backup any important data present in this folder. Then follow these steps:
1. Open Run using Win+R key combination and run cleanmgr command.
2. Select the drive in which Windows.old folder exists and then click OK.
3. Click Clean up System Files and then again select the drive.
4. In the next window, check Previous Windows Installation(s). Then click OK.
5. That’s it! It will ask for confirmation and will then delete the Windows.old folder.
Alternatively, you can use Command Prompt for this process. Run CMD.exe as administrator. Then copy and paste the following command and hit ENTER:
RD /S /Q %SystemDrive%windows.old
Please ensure that folder’s name is Windows.old and nothing else and you have run CMD as administrator.
Thanks to Brink for above command!
