I had Vista installed in a dual boot configuration when I decided to install a newer build of Vista. (Going from beta to to build 5472)
However, because of bad experiences by others, I wanted to do a clean reinstall. The drive containing Vista also contained other files, so I did not want to format the Vista drive.
So I thought I would simply go into XP, and delete the Vista Windows directory by hand. This turned out not to be as simple as I thought because I was getting Access Denied or depending on the method getting 'the file is in use' on the files.
After trying several options I found out this is the way to do it:
- The vista files are owned by an unknown SID (from the Vista installation). SO the first thing to do is to use the Advanced button on the security dialog of the directory to take Ownership.
- Go to the permissions tab, and make your Owner get full control of the directory, and make sure that you:
- Do Not inherit permissions from the parent directory
- Do make contained files & folder inherit from this directory
This way you have made sure that you new owner can access all vista files & folders with a Full Control permission set, and you be able to delete the files
21 comments
Thanks so much. I messed around with changing permissions, but somehow I never had the right settings to allow me to delete the files.
Hao
Excellent, been looking for that for ages. Just one thing. In standard XP the Security Tab is hidden by default. More MickeySoft garbage. Don’t forget to go enable the Security tab in the Folder Options before applying the above.
Spitz
Dave Bray
Oh my christ, the sheer effort required to do all that. I had those folders renamed, moved, sorted, exchanged, ugh. And to top it all off, I have simple filesharing enabled, I didn’t think to enable it and sort out the permissions. Cheers!
Tass-AJ
Thank you so much.
Sergey
The only thing I can say is thank you
Dee
i had xpsp2 installed with vista64 rc1,dual boot ws workin fine. Then i installed vista64 but i dunno y i lost th dual boot option and only vista ws workin. after tht i reinstalled xp n lost vista n now i cant del vista. can u please help me
john
i mean i lost th dual boot option fr xpsp2 (i think thts obvious right)
john
This articles descrbies the steps to use I think.. The steps are written to be performed when you are logged into XP and so no Vista files will be locked.
Which steps are giving you problems?
Raimondb
i am a noob…so i needed more detailed steps under owner and permissions tab
john
The trick is to right click on the folder you want to delete, then select properties. In this dialog you find the tabs I speak of.
Raimondb
actually i ws not gettin past th steps under th tabs – owner and permission. i am th administrator and it shows here administrator and my name. so wht do i hv to choose.
john
Nice, but I tried everything but I don’t get the map with the ownership….
Remco
Yeah, thanx, but maybe its important to say that if you have enabled simplified sharing, in properties aren’t these tabs with ownership. To disable simplified sharing read this: http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B307874&x=10&y=11 and now rigt click on the folder you want to delete and….
Timo
So could anyone tell me why is a Vista file in use by an XP process? O_o
The “xrwcscci.dll” for instance.
Alex
I’ve deleted Windows Vista and now I cannot remove the folder by myself. What should I do?
Riste
tnx man it worck
eizhak
I am using a software named Unlocker to delete these files, and it’s working, but it is very slow.
Shishir
good stuff… took me a while to work it out but i got it working in the end, thanks very much for this post!
peter
Thank you very much, you just helped me with a problem that I tried to solve for a long time now.. 🙂 Happy New Year !
orjan
I did this and the files where removed BUT the free disk space did not change!
Now I have no files to delete and no space…
Can anyone help me on this?
AirbornG
Got it..
The files only show up on the recycle bin if your’re logged in with the user that deleted them. So be sure to empty the bin with the admin user or shift+delete in the first place.
AirbornG