Board index » Windows Vista » Remove windows.old

Windows Vista22
I've just used a Vista upgrade disc to upgrade a Windows XP Pro computer

to Vista Home Premium.



I used the option for a fresh install of Windows and as well as the

Windows folder on the hard drive, it also has a folder Windows.old

containing all the old XP OS and programmes.



Is it OK to just delete that folder to regain the disc space?



Also, when the computer boots up now there is a flash of text on screen as

some sort of boot file is executed, just before it starts to load Vista.



Where is this file and can it be altered or removed so that the computer

goes straight from the BIOS screen to the Vista loading screen?



Many thanks for any help.



Ray D


-

"Ray Dawson" <ray@magray.freeserve.co.uk>wrote:



As long as you have retrieved all the files and folders you intend to keep,

it is not a problem. Deleting it will not affect your current OS. However,

it will wipe out the possibility of rolling back to your legacy OS.



Are you talking about the BIOS splash screen? That is supposed to be there.

Provide us with some additional information, and someone may be able to help

you.



Charlie42



-

I can answer the first question. Yes, you can remove windows.old to regain

space. Make sure that you do not have any useful programs left in there from

XP. This folder will be removed wholesale and no copy will be forwarded to

Recycle.



You will have difficulty simply deleting it unless you established yourself

as an administrator. These are instructions. I have at least 8 Vista

installation to my credit and I removed those folders with no problem. Once

I had to install Vista on top of a previous Vista in turn installed over XP.

There were windows.old and windows.old.old in the partition.



You are not the administrator and will never be. Administrator is an object.



You can temporarily give yourselves rights to perform some operations as if

you were Administrator, yes. Your power still will be limited. Actually you

do not need more than that.



In order to do what you want you will have to open "Local Users And Groups"

GUI (either typing lusrmgr.msc in Windows\system32\ -- do not forget to open

Command Prompt as "run as Administrator" - take a notice!!!) or if you have

Home or Home Premium you should go thru Control panel>System and

Maintenance>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Local Users and Groups.

Open up thumbnail Groups, open up Group "Administrators" (nb: it is plural)

and you will see the object "administrator" in there. Add yourselves to this

group. Close the GUI.



You may have a somewhat easier life from now on but it may not be enough.

You may also need to establish yourselves as a person who has the right to

write into certain folders if you want. Go to that folder, left

click>>Properties>>Security tab>>Edit>>Add>>type in your name>>Close that

window, Check checkbox "Full Control">>Apply>>OK.



You may also need to delete Inheritance. Click Advanced. That will give you

an option to uncheck a checkbox and the onwership rights of other objects

will be terminated.

Now you will have the right to do what you want in this folder and ALL its

subfolders. You will never be denied any access. You should exercise this

power judiciously and on a limited basis.





"Ray Dawson" <ray@magray.freeserve.co.uk>wrote in message

-

"Charlie42" <Charlie42@spam.me.not>wrote:



No, it's after the two BIOS screens.



On my other machine with a fresh install of Vista, and on this machine

when it had XP installed, after the second BIOS screen which finishes with

'Boot from Hard dics', it goes direct to the Windows loading screen with

the green bar on it.



On this machine with Vista installed over XP, there is a quich flash of a

few lines of text scrolling up the screen betwen that second BIOS screen

(after the boot from HD message) and the Windows loading screen.



It's too fast to read, but looks like some sort of boot file being

executed.



Does the Vista upgrade, rather than the Vista clean install, have a boot

file to possibly enable a dual boot?



Cheers,



Ray D

-

Hello "Ray Dawson":

I have seen serveral posts that suggest the easiest way to delete

"windows old" is to type disk cleanup in the "Start Search" box, hit enter,

ok administrative rights, select all users, click ok, and after it scans for

clean up options it will display a window that will contain files which can

be deleted. This should include windows old. Just clear any boxes in this

window you don't want to delete and put a check in Windows old and hit ok and

you're done. If you don't need the space right away, you might want to keep

windows old in case you want to re-install due to hardware or software probs

with Vista.



xiowan..........in tucson



"Ray Dawson" wrote:

Hello,

Isn't there an option in cleanmg.exe( Disk Cleanup) to remove "Previous

Windows installation(s)"?

I get that option in Disk Cleanup, when I have an old version of Windows on

the same volume.

Description in cleanmgr is:

Files from a previous Windows installation. Files and folders that may

conflict with the installation of Windows have been moved to folders named

Windows.old. You can access data from previous Windows installations in

this folder.



The box is not checked by default, but it shows with 16 plus gig of

recovery space if I would select this.

It may be easier if that option exists

Thanks,

Darrell Gorter[MSFT]



This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

--------------------

|>From: "alexB" <alexb@comcast.net>

|>References: <gemini.jx9q320011nzn01n0.ray@magray.freeserve.co.uk>

|>In-Reply-To: <gemini.jx9q320011nzn01n0.ray@magray.freeserve.co.uk>

|>Subject: Re: Remove windows.old

|>Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 14:45:49 -0500

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microsoft.public.windows.vista.general:265361

|>X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general

|>

|>I can answer the first question. Yes, you can remove windows.old to

regain

|>space. Make sure that you do not have any useful programs left in there

from

|>XP. This folder will be removed wholesale and no copy will be forwarded

to

|>Recycle.

|>

|>You will have difficulty simply deleting it unless you established

yourself

|>as an administrator. These are instructions. I have at least 8 Vista

|>installation to my credit and I removed those folders with no problem.

Once

|>I had to install Vista on top of a previous Vista in turn installed over

XP.

|>There were windows.old and windows.old.old in the partition.

|>

|>You are not the administrator and will never be. Administrator is an

object.

|>

|>You can temporarily give yourselves rights to perform some operations as

if

|>you were Administrator, yes. Your power still will be limited. Actually

you

|>do not need more than that.

|>

|>In order to do what you want you will have to open "Local Users And

Groups"

|>GUI (either typing lusrmgr.msc in Windows\system32\ -- do not forget to

open

|>Command Prompt as "run as Administrator" - take a notice!!!) or if you

have

|>Home or Home Premium you should go thru Control panel>System and

|>Maintenance>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Local Users and

Groups.

|>Open up thumbnail Groups, open up Group "Administrators" (nb: it is

plural)

|>and you will see the object "administrator" in there. Add yourselves to

this

|>group. Close the GUI.

|>

|>You may have a somewhat easier life from now on but it may not be

enough.

|>You may also need to establish yourselves as a person who has the right

to

|>write into certain folders if you want. Go to that folder, left

|>click>>Properties>>Security tab>>Edit>>Add>>type in your name>>Close

that

|>window, Check checkbox "Full Control">>Apply>>OK.

|>

|>You may also need to delete Inheritance. Click Advanced. That will give

you

|>an option to uncheck a checkbox and the onwership rights of other

objects

|>will be terminated.

|>Now you will have the right to do what you want in this folder and ALL

its

|>subfolders. You will never be denied any access. You should exercise

this

|>power judiciously and on a limited basis.

|>

|>

|>"Ray Dawson" <ray@magray.freeserve.co.uk>wrote in message

|>news:gemini.jx9q320011nzn01n0.ray@magray.freeserve.co.uk...

|>>

|>>I've just used a Vista upgrade disc to upgrade a Windows XP Pro

computer

|>>to Vista Home Premium.

|>>

|>>I used the option for a fresh install of Windows and as well as the

|>>Windows folder on the hard drive, it also has a folder Windows.old

|>>containing all the old XP OS and programmes.

|>>

|>>Is it OK to just delete that folder to regain the disc space?

|>>

|>>Also, when the computer boots up now there is a flash of text on

screen as

|>>some sort of boot file is executed, just before it starts to load

Vista.

|>>

|>>Where is this file and can it be altered or removed so that the

computer

|>>goes straight from the BIOS screen to the Vista loading screen?

|>>

|>>Many thanks for any help.

|>>

|>>Ray D

|>

|>



-

"Ray Dawson" <ray@magray.freeserve.co.uk>wrote:



All Vista systems, upgrades or fresh installs, have a boot manager that can

also handle multiple OS installs, but I do not think what you are seeing has

anything to do with dual booting. In that case you would have been prompted

with a set of options to choose from.



From your description, I can not really see that there is anything wrong

with your installation, you are just briefly seeing some output from the

boot up that is not usually displayed on the screen. I could be wrong of

course, but if you experience nothing more than a puzzling piece of text,

you can just ignore it. If there is anything wrong, you should be able to

find information about it in the Event Viewer (Control Panel>System and

Maintenance>Administrative Tools, you need to run as administrator).



Charlie42



-

Many thanks for all the answers. I'll keep windows.old until I definitely

don't need it and ignore the text on screen.



Cheers,



Ray D



"Charlie42" <Charlie42@spam.me.not>wrote: