How to Clean Up 15 GB or More from Your Windows 10 Computer

When you upgrade from Windows 7/8.1 to Windows 10, the software retains a copy of your old operating system just in case you want to revert. However, if you don’t want to revert to your old Windows operating system, you’re left with at least 15GB of wasted space on your hard disk drive, all of it stored in a folder called Windows.old. If you try to directly delete the Windows.old folder in Windows File Explorer, the system won’t let you remove most of the files because it considers them system files. Instead, you’ll have to use Windows 10’s disk cleanup tool for accelerator computer.

To run it, type disk cleanup into the Windows search bar, and then click the disk cleanup program entry that appears. Click on the “Clean up system files” button, the tool will examines your system for files to clean. After a short while, it shows you a list of all the files it can clean for you.


Scroll down to “Previous Windows installation(s)” and you’ll see how much disk space the Windows.old folder uses. Check the box next to it if you want to delete it, and then click OK, the Disk Cleanup tool will take anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes to delete the files. If you do that, of course, you won’t be able to revert to your old Windows OS.

There’s more you can remove as well. Besides Disk Cleanup, you could also use UPCleaner, one of the best free computer cleaner, to clean up the files you no longer need such as temporary internet files, invalid patch, installation package, and files remaining in the recycle bin.