Can't delete windows.old?

[MrLDino]

Recently I reset my PC and as the title suggests I cannot delete my Windows.old folder. I've used the Disk Cleanup twice now, the first time it deleted a majority of the 15GB of data but left 700MB of random .dll files that are present in the Windows folder. The second time I ran Disk Cleanup it didn't remove anything else.

I moved onto overriding the SYSTEM permissions so I could delete the folder manually. This, too, did not work as the folder constantly states that "The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program. Close the folder or file and try again."

The last option I attempted was deleting the folder using the CMD and yes, I did run it as admin, and a bunch of the files popped up saying that "access is denied". I have no clue what programs, or files in Windows.old, are being used and how to stop them from being used so I can just delete the blasted folder.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Run Disk Cleanup

 

[gardenman]

It's possible that a security program you have installed (anti-virus or firewall) could be preventing the files from being removed. Try to temporarily disable your anti-virus and firewall then run Disk Cleanup. If that doesn't work, try booting into safe mode or doing a clean boot and then running Disk Cleanup.