Upgrading to a new or same version of Windows Microsoft create a folder called Windows.old in c drive which helps us to revert back to the previous version of Windows if any disappointment to the newer version.
I am seeing this as a backup option, I have never used this feature though but thinking what if I copy the Windows.old to the another drive and kept it to my satisfactory till I am fully satisfied with the new version.
I am not follow this practice for all the PCs in my environment though but we have some critical PC which got broke last time while upgrading from Windows 10 version 1703 to Windows 10 version 1903.
If I move Windows.old folder to another drive or partition and move back again to the same place in the PC will this helpful? will Windows detect the folder again?
It’s a wonderful question to ask. Yes you can move the windows.old file to another drive and place back to it’s existing place whenever you need it. You cam move to another partition, or another disk or even move to an external hard disk because it;s just an archive folder.
Windows.old is an important folder to take as a backup, this process can be very much useful in a critical situation. You must move this folder within 30 days of its creation because Microsoft has placed a task in scheduler or storage sense can delete this folder automatically after the 30 days So, be aware of this.
Yes you can. Take ownership of the drive and move to the desired location. According to Microsoft, versions prior to Windows 10 used this folder in case you wanted to downgrade to a previous install when upgrading. It was to be deleted automatically after a month. If you just received recent upgrades TO Windows 10, past build 1703, it will keep them for 10 days in case something is wrong with the new build. Folder sizes may vary from 12 GB to 20 GB or more.
Windows 10 treats upgrades from one build to another as an in-place upgrade akin to moving from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10. Also, minor updates may also save data in this file, but not more than 2 GB worth on average. So, if your system has recently updated, (twice a year now for major upgrades and monthly for smaller updates) it will have this folder for up to 10 days. If you have no need to regress then you can delete it sooner.
Therefore, deleting or moving the folder would cause no harm if you delete/move it sooner and are having no system problems.
