Thanks for taking the time to give me such a full answer
Paul--
Darrell means to follow these steps:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421
Sometimes they won't delete however, even after you have taken ownership or use a panoply of Delete hard to delete type apps but it's worth trying. (I assume that you didn't leave anything on the Vista volume/drive that you wanted before installing it that would have been included in Windows.old). I understand that you want to get this done because so much real estate has been taken up which makes me wonder how much you left on there without formatting the drive to do a clean Vista install--most Windows.old would not be Gigabytes unless a substanbtial amount of material from a previous OS"s files had been on there.
1) The admin account that is non-deletable that you can reach from safe mode may help you get rid of it and you can also try this from Windows Explorer in Safe Mode. You also can try Doug Knox's
2) Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open. Close all open programs. Click Start, Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe. Leave Task Manager open. Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory the AVI (or other undeletable file) is located in. At the command prompt type DEL <filename> where <filename> is the file you wish to delete. Go back to Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell. Close Task Manager.
If UAC is in your way, you can turn it off at the tools tab at msconfig for the time you want to get your task done (requires a reboot) and then turn it on. If you do a search on this group, or the Vista general, we've put up a number of ways to make UAC more user friendly on the fly with regedits, and secpol.msc changes while we wait to see if the UAC team will make a move toward much better implementation in RC1 or RC2 or RTM whenever.
I have found that using delete methods and applications for "hard to delete files" won't be very effective, so try ownership.
You might also try this to remove the "windows.old" folder, subfolders and files :
3) restart Vista at the boot screen hit the <f8> key boot into "safe mode with command prompt" rename windows.old to windows.old1
Use the following command to delete the folder and it's contents
del windows.old1\*.* /F /S /Q
/F : force delete on read-only files
/S : include subfolders
/Q : suppress confirmation prompts
4) This is the reghack for being able to log on as admin: Go to:
HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Add a new key: SpecialAccounts>And a sub-key in the SpecialAccounts key:
UserList>In the UserList key, create a DWORD (32-bit): Administrator Set
value to: 1
To give yourself admin privileges you can also try 5-8 and particularly 5.
5) Windows key + R>secpol.msc>Under Local Policies>Click Security Options>3rd Item Down>Run all administrators in admin mode>enable for the time at least you want to get rid of Windows.old
6) Go to Start/Run/ and there, enter control userpasswords2 - and enable it
there.
7) Go to Start/Run/ and there, enter compmgmt.msc - and enable it there.
8) Run "Net user administrator active:yes" from an elevated cmd prompt.
__________________________
*UAC Vista Resources*
UAC Articles Technet
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/uac.mspx
UAC blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/uac/
http://blogs.msdn.com/uac/archive/2006/01/22/516066.aspx
Expert Zone Webcast: Security Features in Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917793/en-us
UAC Team Beta Vista Chats:
6/22/06
http://windowsconnected.com/forums/70/ShowForum.aspx
9/28/05
http://windowsconnected.com/forums/thread/2846.aspx
and also check out these discussions:
O'Reilly Dev Center: UAC Overview
http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2006/04/04/uac-in-windows-vista.html
Technet UAC Overview
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/uacppr.mspx
UAC What's New in Beta 2?
http://blogs.msdn.com/uac/archive/2006/06/21/641713.aspx
UAC Application Webcast
http://blogs.msdn.com/uac/archive/2006/06/26/647384.aspx
Q&A with UAC Vista PM Chris Corio
http://windowsconnected.com/blogs/joshs_blog/archive/2006/01/21/558.aspx
UAC Gone Wild (Not to be confused with Girls Gone Wild who can't decide how
to wear their T-Shirts)
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877-6089415.html
Good luck,
CH
___
Nice goin' USA--you have forged a solid Shiite Fanatic Fundamentalist Crescent from Damascus to Gaza and as usual while "All hat no Cattle lil George sits in the corner drooling, Israel has the Kohonas to clean up part of the Axis of Terrorist Evil that you can't.
"Propotional response" LOL--Gee I wonder how "proportional" it's be if those Katyushas were sailin' into D.C., NYC, Miami, Seattle, and Houston. I know most Americans don't read newspapers but those missles have been sailing into Israel every day for 4 years. The CNN barbie dolls think they just got there 2 weeks ago.
Great job on the embryonic stems Georgie--you never run out of ways to kill Americans in droves. Nothing like quintissential and complete medical stupidity to energize a base with mush in their brains and the scientific/medical insight of a pith brained squirrel.
______________________________
"Darrell Gorter[MSFT]" said:
Hello Paul,
You have to take ownership of the files and folders under Windows.old
before you can delete them.
You do not have permissions to delete or modify system files or folders.
Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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<Subject: windows.old
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<I installed Beta 2 over the top of WinXP. It created a backup of the old
<installation and called it windows.old. I'm having terrible trouble
deleting
<this folder. It keeps telling me its protected and i dont have rights even
<though theres only one user account on there etc etc
<
<How do I delete this folder and free up all GBs its taking up?
<
<
<Thanks
<
<
<
<
