How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations

Let’s discuss How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations. All 3 of my laptops are running Windows 10.

Most of the time, during the Windows 10 upgrade to the new build process, I face issues like there is not enough space to install the new build. So the question is, how can I remove/clean the Previous Windows Installations from my Windows 10 laptop?

Yes, we can manually delete or remove the Windows.old and Recovery Image folders. But I’ve seen that most of the time, the Windows.old folder won’t get deleted because of some issues.

In this post, you will find all the details on how to Clean and Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations. Cleaning and removing previous Windows 10 installations can help reclaim valuable disk space on your computer.

Index
How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations

How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations – Table 1

In this post, I will discuss another option for disk cleanup: “previous Windows installations“.

1. Go to System Drive –> This PC –> OSDisk (C:) –> Right-click Properties –> Click on Disk Cleanup.

How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations - Fig.1 — How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations – Fig.1

Files from a previous Windows Installation. Files and folders that may conflict with the Windows installation have been moved to folders named Windows.old. You can access data from previous installations in this folder. Once you remove this 26.3 GB in my case, I can easily perform the next Windows 10 build upgrade!!

Disk Cleanup of OSDisk (C:)
Select files to delete: Previous Windows Installation(s)

How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations – Table 2

How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations - Fig.2 — How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations – Fig.2

3. Click OK on the Disk Cleanup (C:) window. Click on “Delete Files” confirmation to proceed. By the end of this process, the Windows.old folder will be removed from the Windows 10 machine, and you can save more than 10 GB of space!! How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations.

How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations - Fig.3 — How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations – Fig.3

4. Once Disk Cleanup is done (completed), you can see the difference in the free space on the C drive. When you try to perform Disk Cleanup again, you won’t get the option to delete the previous Windows installations.

How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations - Fig.4 — How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations – Fig.4

Resources

Windows 10 Latest Version Of Client Operating System From Microsoft (anoopcnair.com)

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Author

Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.

Written by

Anoop C Nair

Anoop C Nair is Workplace Technology solution architect with 25+ years of experience in global enterprise organizations such as JP Morgan, Capgemini, etc. Microsoft Certified Trainer. Microsoft MVP from 2015 onwards for consecutive 11+ years! He also conducts Intune and modern workplace tech training for enterprise organizations. He is Blogger, Speaker, and Founder of HTMD Community and HTMD Conference. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like Intune, Windows, Cloud PC. He writes about technologies like Intune, SCCM, Windows, Cloud PC, Windows, Entra, Microsoft Security.

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How to Clean Remove Previous Windows 10 Installations

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