Ian, I installed my Win10 onto a fresh SSD, so I suspect that the old folder was the result of the big update that someone mentioned. I stupidly forgot to look at the timestamp of the old folder and files before I deleted them, or I might have been able to link them to that weird Monday morning reboot. I haven't seen any $Windows or ~WS files around. Anyway, I'm glad I got rid of the 120,000 files and 20 gigwatts of space, as my C: drive SSD is a smallish one.
*GK* On 6 March 2016 at 21:57, Ian Thomas <[email protected]> wrote: > Greg, when the 15-11-2015 Windows 10 update (which is sometimes likened to > a .1 update)occurred, all update records that you can see when back to zero > so to speak. But it doesn’t create a Windows.old (or mine haven’t) – that > is typical of an upgrade that can back off” to the previous installed > version of Windows. > > Do you also have a folder $Windows.~WS with something in it? That is a > part / a remnant of a qualifying prior Windows version, having downloaded > the stuff necessary for the initial Windows 10 install. > > Maybe the friend who did your initial hardware assembly and Windows > installation had a prior booting Windows on the current boot drive? > > > > Ian Thomas > > Albert Park, Victoria 3206 Australia > > > > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Greg Keogh > *Sent:* Sunday, 6 March 2016 7:10 PM > *To:* ozDotNet <[email protected]> > *Subject:* [OT] Windows.old folder > > > > Folks, probably a Friday topic, but FYI ... I was doing some Sunday > evening backups and cleanups and I noticed a Windows.old folder taking > about 20GB with ~120000 files in it! Now the weird thing is that I have no > clear idea when or where this came from. I didn't run or accept any major > upgrades, and my Win10 C: drive was installed fresh a few weeks ago. > > > > You may recall two Monday mornings ago I booted and received a weird (and > scary) windows update style message about "your files are still where you > left them" and all my customisations had been reversed. Someone in here > suggested that I had been upgraded to Windows 10.1, which is possible, but > I find no record in the update history. I can only guess that I did receive > a gigantic OS upgrade without warning, creating the Windows.old folder. > This does worry me, as I like to have control over major decisions like > this, and I certainly did in older versions of Windows. Even iOS is more > polite and helpful about performing vast upgrades. > > > > You have to login as local Administrator, take ownership of the folder and > propagate full control all the way down before you can delete it. > > > > *GK* >
