Jobe Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Free up 24GB+ of hard drive space in Windows 10 by cleaning up after the November Update (Threshold 2)Microsoft released its first major Windows 10 update last week, and this comes with lots of shiny new features and general improvements including cosmetic changes, Edge enhancements, and new (and better) apps. As all Windows 10 updates are mandatory, if you’re using the new OS you’ll likely have the update installed and be running the latest build (10586) already.The November Update (Threshold 2 as it was codenamed) is pretty sizable and takes a while to download and install. Once the installation process has completed you might reasonably expect the new OS to clean up after itself and delete old files, but actually it doesn’t, meaning you can free up a large chunk of hard drive space by running a manual clean up yourself. And when I say a "large chunk" I mean it. Cleaning up after the November Update will give you back at least 24GB of hard drive space, so it’s well worth doing. SEE ALSO: Microsoft releases first major update for Windows 10 -- here's what's new (and better)The process is very straightforward. Click Start and type Disk Cleanup. Launch the Disk Clean-up app, make sure your system drive is selected, and click OK.The tool will calculate how much space can be regained. Ignore this for now and instead click on the Clean up system files button. Select your system drive once more, and click the OK button again.The tool will recalculate your space savings, but this time include a new option -- Previous Windows installation(s). This will include the 20GB+ created by installing the November Update. Check that box, and the Temporary Windows installation files one as well (which will save you another 4GB) and click OK to remove those backed up files and regain your missing hard drive space.Be warned, these files are used to roll back your system to a previous installation of Windows and removing them takes away that option. If, however, you intend to stick with Windows 10, they serve little use and so can be cleared out without problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CODYQX4 Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 For me all 4 of the test Windows 10 machines I used freed up 13.5GB, not quite 24GB but I saved over 50GB across all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davmil Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Nice tip & reminder. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rok Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Yeap, MS has added "windows.old" to Disk Cleanup. But, i always prefer clean installation. Upgrade was (is) only necessary, for first time activation from Old Windows releases ( 7 / 8 / 8.1) to Windows 10. Later, Win 10 updates, can be directly clean installed using ISO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kr1w Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 nice tips, thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacm1979 Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Useful tip. The only odd thing is one one device I have a stubborn windows.old folder that does not want to leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antg Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 I assume since I installed win 10 last summer the roll back won't work anyway now so it's ok to delete windows.old? The reason I ask is that my old pc is struggling with win 10 but when I tried I didn't seem to have the option to go back to Win 7 after the 30 days or whatever they gave me at the start. Apart from a clean install from iso of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lethang136 Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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