After waiting for some indication of what to do with my existing Windows 10.0.240 installation I decided to bite the bullet and just download the Media Creation Tool. I then allowed it to "upgrade" my existing Windows 10 install, a process that went smoothly until I tried to delete the Windows.old folder through Disk Cleanup. All but a few folders got deleted - specifically, 4 folders related to the Intel Atom z2760 chipset software which are hiding under the following folder:
C:Windows.oldWindowsSystem32DriverStoreFileRepository
Not matter what I try, I can't seem to get rid of these few remaining folders, and by extension, Windows.old. Anyone have any advice on how to nuke this stuff once and for all?
RCK
before you nuke them - verify they are in the Current windows folder
Yeah, I manually walked through each of the referenced drivers in Device Manager and uninstalled them/reinstalled them via "Have Disk" while pointing at a different source for the driver files. A check of the drivers shows them all now pointing at their associated .sys files in System32Drivers, and I've also checked that the equivalent folders exist under the current (not Windows.old) DriverStore folder.
So I think it should be OK to nuke them, I'm just not sure how to convince Windows to let me do it.
RCK
I've had the same problem in each of my last two build updates. If I find a way to get rid of them I'll let you know, CCleaner did work once but not this time.
Well, it's not that much of a problem since I can confirm that all of my drivers are installed and working from the expected locations. But still, it's annoying to have that orphaned Windows.old folder lurking in my file system. I'm a disk "clean freak" and hate to see extraneous stuff floating around, especially in the root folder.
RCK
Update: Well I poked around a bit too much in my efforts to delete that stubborn Windows.old folder. After removing several related drivers from Device Manager I rendered my laptop unbootable. Then, when I went to do a "clean" install from my recently downloaded RTM ISO image (e.g. my way around creating a "Windows.old" folder in the first place), I discovered that Windows 10 would refuse to activate.
I'm guessing it was probably related to the fact that my laptop's embedded-in-the-BIOS product key was for Windows 8.x Home, and though I had since upgraded the machine to Windows 8.1 Pro, that somehow the activation servers never got the message. Long story short I had to do a clean install of Windows 8.1 - using my "Pro" product key - and then upgrade from there. Which, of course, left me with another...
...Windows.old folder that simply WON'T DIE!!! ARGHHHH!!!!!
RCK
Right click on the folder > properties > security tab > advanced >
Then at the top you'll see a blue "Change" link next to "Owner: ..." Click that.
Enter your user in the box > click "Check Names" and it should load your account > OK > OK > OK
Then you should have permission to edit the security settings since you're the owner of the folder now.
i use this to delete windows.old folders Download Unlocker 1.9.2 - FileHippo.com
I suggest you run Disk Cleanup and pick Clean Up System Files then old windows installs, that's what I did. There is installs, upgrade files and some error logs that can go. They all have the same icon.
The initial post said he did use Disk Cleanup.
