Upgrade

[seelie]

Can someone give me some advice. Earlier this year I upgraded my old laptop from XP to Windows7. It works fine albeit slow. On searching I found I have a "Windows.old" file which contained old programes and files. (I deleted the old programes). I tried to copy the file onto a stick so I maybe could delete it, but it took hours. Am I safe to get rid of this file? It comes up telling me that there are Windows files which can affect the system if removed. The size of the file is 27.8GB so if I was able to get rid it might speed up the system. Being an old OAP I try my best, but need a little help here.

[Old_Geezer]

I believe so but wait for confirmation. I suspect it is just the old unused files kept in case you ever need them. I've never needed them, but I was never desperate for space so wanting to delete it.

[SlackAlice]

When you upgraded, the installation found the old files and put them in a folder labelled Windows.old

Mainly it stored documents, photo's, music files and a few other little bits and pieces from the previous installation. If your happy that you do not need any of these files then you can 'delete' the folder called Windows.old

Transferring them on to a usb stick will take time as your finding out.

[hc4361]

How much empty space have you got on your hard disk?

[seelie]

Thanks for the replies. Before I upgraded the laptop I removed all the pictures and cleaned up best I could. The free space I have left on the c-drive is 22.2GB. I added 1GB of RAM last year as the laptop had a paltry 1GB now giving me 2GB ram. The messages it gives is that by removing the files it will affect the Windows system, but does that only refer to the old XP system. HELP !!

[hc4361]

As you still have plenty of space on your hard drive, I would not expecting faster performance by removing the old windows.

In which way is your laptop slow? Slow to start up, slow on the internet, slow to access files on your hard drive?

[seelie]

Hi hc4361
Would you not advise to get rid of the file? The laptop has been quite slow at startup, and a pain when downloading, but over the last 24hrs I've defraged, cleaned with spybot and ccleaner and things are a little better. It ran quicker when I used XP but had to upgrade. Think it just messed things up a bit. I have a desktop, but am reluctant to ditch my old HP laptop and keen to keep it working, but it's getting a bit old - like me.

[hc4361]

You probably have too many programs automatically loading at start up.

This tells you how to disable them - it's easier than it appears but PLEASE only disable programs you know your pc doesn't need to run, such as Skype, printer. If you're not sure, leave it alone or ask on AB

http://www.howtogeek.com/74523/how-to-disable-startup-programs-in-windows/

The speed of your downloads can be two things - slow internet connection or a browser made sluggish by conflicting add ons and extensions. What browser do you use?

I am unsure about deleting the windows.old although I have done it without problem. It is a different matter telling someone else to do it, though, in case it all goes wrong.

[SlackAlice]

Every time I've upgraded or re-installed Windows I've been left with a Windows.old folder. After I'm happy I've got all my photo's, documents and music transferred over I always deleted the Windows.old folder.

However deleting or not deleting Windows.old will not slow or speed up your computer. With 22.2Gb empty space you are not critically low on HDD space, so that's not an issue either.

hc4361 link as provided in his earlier post is a good one and I have often used MsConfig to stop unnecessary programs starting at boot up.

[seelie]

Hi hc4361
Thanks for replying. Think I'll just have to leave the file well alone in case it makes things worse. Use Firefox for my browser - prefer it to Explorer.
Thanks again for everyone who responded. Answerbank is great for advice.

[hc4361]

I suggest you try a different browser just as an experiment to see if that speeds your downloading up.
If it does but you want to stick with Firefox try disabling all the add ons and extensions to see if that helps. If it does, you know it is an extension and will need to add them one by one until you find the culprit.

[VHG]

You cant do any harm deleting the Windows.old folder.

As long as you have made sure you have removed all personal files form it then just delete it.