So much Windows 11 as Windows 10although the latter only until next year, they receive updates every month. The last one for him Windows The most recent version has been 24H2which includes a number of new features, some of them related to the AI assistant Copilotwhich, for the moment, will not be available in Europe integrated with Windows 11 due to the Digital Markets Law. In any case, if you have updated your PC to Windows 11 24H2, you may notice that the available space on your hard drive has been reduced. significantly reduced.
The reason for this loss of space is that Windows keeps the previous version saved so it can be restored in case the new one causes problems. This copy usually takes up more than 20 GB of hard drive space. In this article we are going to explain how to delete it and recover that space.
You should note that deleting this copy will prevent you from going back if necessaryso it is advisable to first check that Windows continues to work as usual and that the update has not caused any malfunctions. Without this copy, you will have to completely reinstall Windows in case of serious errors.
To remove the old version of the operating system that Windows saves by default, you must follow these steps:
- Press the keys Windows + I to open the Configuration of Windows.
- Select System and then Storage.
- Click Temporary files and wait for Windows to check them.
- Check the box corresponding to Older version of Windows to delete it. To free up more space, you can also select Distribution Optimization Files —used to download Microsoft updates—, Recycle Binthe folder Downloads -if you don’t have anything important- or Miniatures. There are more options, but they accumulate much smaller amounts of junk files than those mentioned.
- Click Remove files.
Another way to carry out this process is with the tool Disk Cleanup:
- Press the key Windows + R and write in the window Execute the command cleanmgr. Alternatively, you can access the tool Disk Cleanup from the start menu by typing its name.
- Select the drive on which you installed Windows, and then click Accept.
- Click Clean system files.
- Select the drive again and then Older version of Windows. Click Accept to finish the process.