Can't completely remove Windows.old directory

[cygnus11]

I just got done upgrading my Surface 3 to Windows 10. The upgrade went great. I did a disk cleanup which removed all of the windows installation files and removed most of the contents of the Windows.old directory.

However, there are a few .sys files in the Windows.old directory that will not delete. I keep getting a message that says "The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program."

I've tried restarting but still I can't delete these files.

I really don't believe these files are actually in use by some process. I am able to move and rename them without a problem. But I just can't delete them. I've even tried Unlocker (a freeware program used for deleting locked files). Still no luck. It is driving me crazy.

I thought about booting into safe mode, but that just seems too complicated on the Surface due to Bitlocker.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is anyone else having this problem of un-deletable files in the Windows.old directory after the upgrade?

 

[M7H]

I've updated my surface 3 as well, and so far love W10!
I remember somewhere in the process, or somewhere on the internet, I've read that it is possible for a month to roll back to W8.1 for whatever reason.
So I think that after a month the "windows.old" folder will dissapear automatically.

I don't bother about this folder and also the hidden $Windows10 download folder, I assume they will dissapear after this 1 month.

 

[cheltor]

I have a similar problem on a Dell XPS L502X laptop. The upgrade to 10 went well, so I ran disk cleanup to clear system files. It ran for ages and when it finished I still had c:\Windows.old\System32\DriverStore which appears to be empty, but I cannot delete them. Does anyone have any ideas please?

 

[cygnus11]

I made a post in the Microsoft community forums about this also.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-3-after/68f9c282-a217-4c40-9cf1-5e8015fdba80

Like I said, it's not really a big deal. In fact, if I can never find a way to delete it, I will just move it somewhere that I can't see it. I will probably forget about it eventually. I just like things neat and organized on my file system.

 

[TechAbstract]

I made a post in the Microsoft community forums about this also.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-3-after/68f9c282-a217-4c40-9cf1-5e8015fdba80

Like I said, it's not really a big deal. In fact, if I can never find a way to delete it, I will just move it somewhere that I can't see it. I will probably forget about it eventually. I just like things neat and organized on my file system.

Use unlocker to remove those hard to remove files
UNLOCKER 1.9.2 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB

 

[cygnus11]

I tried Unlocker, but it didn't work. However, it did give me the option to try to remove the files on reboot. I didn't actually try that because I was a bit nervous that there really was some process that needed them (even though I was able to move and rename them without any problems). I guess I should try the reboot option and see what happens.

Other people are reporting that they have been able to remove them by uninstalling the Surface devices that use the real driver files that match the un-removable driver file names. Basically, find the devices in the device manager that use driver files of the same name (but the ones in the real windows directory). Uninstall those devices. Then you will be able to delete the files from windows.old. Afterwards, you have to reinstall those devices again. The re-install process will find the correct driver files in the windows directory and all will be fine. I haven't tried this yet and I'm not sure I want to uninstall devices, but it sounds like it should work.

 

[Narse77]

If I decide to not be lazy I may try that uninstalling devices to see if I can completely delete Windows.old If it was just the surface .sys files I would do it but I have a lot of others in the folder as well

 

[ipaqman1]

I had about 200KB of driver files left in Windows.old and I could not delete them.

I booted to my Macrium Reflect USB drive and clicked on the small Explorer icon at the bottom of the screen and deleted the Windows.old folder.

 

[Talldog]

I booted to my Macrium Reflect USB drive and clicked on the small Explorer icon at the bottom of the screen and deleted the Windows.old folder.

Wow, who knew? Thanks for that one.