If you're happy with the Creators Update, you can remove old
Windows installation files that you're no longer using.
7 Check all the boxes on the «Files to delete» menu, especially «Previous Windows Installations» and «Temporary
Windows Installation Files.»
And then it went too far, with the notifications becoming more persistent and, in some cases, with the GWX program downloading several gigabytes of
Windows installation files in the background without the user's knowledge.
An ISO file combines all
the Windows installation files into a single uncompressed file.
The tool will begin formatting the USB drive and copy all
the Windows installation files to it to make the USB drive bootable.
Here you can also choose to delete other installation related files, including Windows upgrade log files and Temporary
Windows installation files, which can take up several gigabytes of storage as well.
You may also remove old
Windows installation files if you still have them installed on your PC.
Possible workaround is to use Disk Cleanup to clean up system files and choose Device driver packages, Previous Windows installations and Temporary
Windows installation files.
While there are many third - party backup solutions, Windows 10 includes the System Image Backup utility that has been around since Windows 7, and it allows you to create an exact copy of everything that is on your device, including
Windows installation files, apps, settings, and personal files.
Windows 10 needs your old
Windows installation files to downgrade, and they can take up quite a bit of hard disk space.
The firmware that's supposed to be on it is totally missing: the user manual,
the Windows installation files, the 100 «included» free books.
This file you are downloading is
a Windows Installation file that will Install the Software on your PC.
Not exact matches
Installation went through the usual
Windows software process (a dialog box that asks a few questions, including consent to a EULA), then offers to open a help
file in Word.
So Microsoft has recently introduced a new troubleshooter, which you can grab from the
Windows site, that automatically moves all your
files in the
Windows.old folder to the corresponding locations within your new
Windows installation.
Download the
Windows installation media and burn the ISO
file to a disc or copy it to a USB drive using Microsoft's
Windows USB / DVD download tool.
Obviously, storing every single
file from your old
Windows installation takes a lot of space.
If you're lucky, the computer may not be able to boot
Windows but you may be able to recover some important
files off of the drive from the Linux live CD or
Windows installation environment.
You will notice that by holding the shift key we have unlocked a whole bunch of hidden items in the context menu, so you can go ahead and send the
files to their matching folder in your current
Windows installation.
If you have a
Windows installation disc, you can use a trick to pull up a
file management
window and copy
files off the computer's hard drive.
This guide will walk you through the steps to delete the
Windows.old folder containing the previous
installation of
Windows and related
installation files to get back valuable hard drive space on your computer.
While it's recommended to create the repair disc, you can always access the recovery options using a bootable USB drive with the
installation files for
Windows 10.
«For those who have chosen to receive automatic updates through
Windows Update, we help customers prepare their devices for
Windows 10 by downloading the
files necessary for future
installation,» a Microsoft spokesperson told El Reg via email.
If your PC has been feeling buggy or having trouble during startup, it's possible that
Windows system
files have become corrupt, gone missing, or even have been changed by a software
installation somewhere along the line.
Typically your
files will be at C: \ Documents and Settings \ UserName in a
Windows XP environment, and at C: \ Users \ UserName in a
Windows Vista or
Windows 7
installation:
Connect the disk that contains the system repair
files (or USB bootable drive with the
Windows 10
installation files) to your device.
You'll need to download the
installation files and run the Setup program from within
Windows or use the Upgrade Assistant available from Microsoft's accessibility page.
When you reinstall
Windows, your system
files will be wiped and they'll be replaced with known - good ones from the
Windows installation disc.
On
Windows 10, using the «Reset This PC» feature, you can securely erase everything on your PC, including
installation files, settings, apps, and personal
files.
To create a bootable drive with the
installation files of
Windows 10, you'll need to connect a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of free storage, and preferably, you want to go through the following steps using a different computer:
With the clean
installation process using a bootable media, it will help you to delete everything, including partitions and any
file stored on the machine, and ensures that you're installing a safe copy of
Windows 10.
-- No
installation required — Creates jump lists with up to 60 programs or
files which can then be directly started — The jump list entries can be grouped — After creating the jump - list, no program needs to run in the background — You can have multiple Jumplist - Launcher - Icons (with different files / programs) on your superbar by copying the folder — Files can be dragged into the Jumplist - Launcher from Windows - Explorer — Icon and name of the entry can be customized — Jumplist - items can be added by dragging single files on Jumplist - Launchers taskbar - icon while holding the shift -
files which can then be directly started — The jump list entries can be grouped — After creating the jump - list, no program needs to run in the background — You can have multiple Jumplist - Launcher - Icons (with different
files / programs) on your superbar by copying the folder — Files can be dragged into the Jumplist - Launcher from Windows - Explorer — Icon and name of the entry can be customized — Jumplist - items can be added by dragging single files on Jumplist - Launchers taskbar - icon while holding the shift -
files / programs) on your superbar by copying the folder —
Files can be dragged into the Jumplist - Launcher from Windows - Explorer — Icon and name of the entry can be customized — Jumplist - items can be added by dragging single files on Jumplist - Launchers taskbar - icon while holding the shift -
Files can be dragged into the Jumplist - Launcher from
Windows - Explorer — Icon and name of the entry can be customized — Jumplist - items can be added by dragging single
files on Jumplist - Launchers taskbar - icon while holding the shift -
files on Jumplist - Launchers taskbar - icon while holding the shift - key.
After installing
Windows 7 Service Pack 1, once you are sure that you do not plan to uninstall it, you can remove the service pack
installation files easily by running Disk Cleanup utility, and free up disk space.
Similarly, even if you install
Windows 7 or
Windows 8 by performing a custom
installation and don't format the partition during the
installation process,
files that were used in your previous version of
Windows are stored in the
Windows.old folder.
The
Windows operating system and various other programs create the temporary
files and many other junk
files during
installation and running.
If you don't have an OEM recovery partition, you can add
Windows 10
installation files to the recovery drive, creating media that you can use to install, reinstall, or repair
Windows 10 on any PC.
Of course, if you do not do this,
Windows 10 will still run a scheduled task later on to remove these
installation files.
Microsoft makes the
installation files for
Windows 10 available from a variety of sources.
Click «Start» and the tool automatically downloads the
Windows 10
installation files, which are about 3 GB in size.
You get some other
file categories after clicking on System
Files — including Old
Windows Installation.
WinReducer will read the data from your
Windows 8
installation files and then you can get started.
When the BIOS boots the USB it will ask you to press any key to load the
Windows 10
installation files.
The
installation of Android 5.1 Lollipop factory image is done using the
Windows command prompt
window and a small script
file.
It is a simple, safe and free program which not only lets you disable «Get
Windows 10 app, but also gives you full control over Upgrade to
Windows 10 notification, automatic download of
Windows 10
installation files and detect and remove the
files if any, and more!
After pointing WinReducer at the
Windows 8
installation files, select the edition of
Windows 8 you'll be using and click the Mount button.
Once the
installation file is downloaded by either of the methods, connect the USB flash drive to the PC where you want to install
Windows 8.1.
More than a year after that offer supposedly ended, Microsoft is still giving away upgrades to
Windows 10 from
Windows 7 or
Windows 8.1 to anyone who downloads the
installation files and runs Setup.
As part of the upgrade process,
Windows leaves your old
Windows installation — or old
Windows build —
files in the «
Windows.old» directory on your system drive.
You can't necessarily just copy a program's
files to your current
Windows installation, as any registry entries the program depends on may be gone.
Along with making the download of
Windows 10 ISO
file, Microsoft has also made available
Windows 10
Installation Media Tool.
It contains log
files about that last
Windows upgrade process and may also contain the
installation files for that update.