Vista - Running "Disk Cleanup" after installing upgrade

I recently upgraded my laptop from Windows XP Media Center Edition to
Windows Vista Premium. The installation went well. When I ran "Disk
Cleanup", I could gain 17.2 GB by removing Previous Windows Installations.
This is the message regarding previous windows installations: "Files from a
previous Windows installation. Files and folders that may conflict with the
installation of Windows have been moved to Folders named Windows.old. You
can access data from the previous windows installations in this folder." My
question: should I remove them to gain 17.2 GB of space? I certainly don't
want to mess up my new laptop, so if it will create any problems, I won't do
it.

My computer's particulars: 1024 MB system memory; 120GB hard drive.

Thanks for your help. Robin Lund

"Robin Lund" <rlund@triad.rr.com> wrote in message
news:OhZNXh2hHHA.208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I recently upgraded my laptop from Windows XP Media Center Edition to
>Windows Vista Premium. The installation went well. When I ran "Disk
>Cleanup", I could gain 17.2 GB by removing Previous Windows Installations.
>This is the message regarding previous windows installations: "Files from
>a previous Windows installation. Files and folders that may conflict with
>the installation of Windows have been moved to Folders named Windows.old.
>You can access data from the previous windows installations in this
>folder." My question: should I remove them to gain 17.2 GB of space? I
>certainly don't want to mess up my new laptop, so if it will create any
>problems, I won't do it.

I'd look through them first to ensure there is nothing there *you* want, but
there is no reason to keep the files around from the operating system's
point of view, if you see what I mean.

If you're really unsure you could always back them up to DVD or something
prior to deleting them, but really there should never be anything in that
folder the OS itself needs.

--
Robert Moir
http://www.rhymeswithgeek.com

Thanks for the info. I'll check them out and then let 'em go. Robin

"Robert Moir" <robspamtrap@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ervNN03hHHA.4952@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> "Robin Lund" <rlund@triad.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:OhZNXh2hHHA.208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>I recently upgraded my laptop from Windows XP Media Center Edition to
>>Windows Vista Premium. The installation went well. When I ran "Disk
>>Cleanup", I could gain 17.2 GB by removing Previous Windows Installations.
>>This is the message regarding previous windows installations: "Files from
>>a previous Windows installation. Files and folders that may conflict with
>>the installation of Windows have been moved to Folders named Windows.old.
>>You can access data from the previous windows installations in this
>>folder." My question: should I remove them to gain 17.2 GB of space? I
>>certainly don't want to mess up my new laptop, so if it will create any
>>problems, I won't do it.
>
> I'd look through them first to ensure there is nothing there *you* want,
> but there is no reason to keep the files around from the operating
> system's point of view, if you see what I mean.
>
> If you're really unsure you could always back them up to DVD or something
> prior to deleting them, but really there should never be anything in that
> folder the OS itself needs.
>
> --
> Robert Moir
> http://www.rhymeswithgeek.com
>