Powershell Deleting Files and Folders

By gunnalagPowerShell

Powershell Deleting Files and Folders

Here is a quick list of very useful File and Folder Deletion operation command-lets.

Completely delete a folder along with files and sub-folders in it forcefully:

Remove-Item “C:TempFldr” -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

 

Completely delete a files and sub-folder under the folder but retain the folder.

Remove-Item “C:TempFldr*” -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

 

Delete only the files under the folder but not sub-folders and files in it.

Remove-Item “C:TempFldr*.*” -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

 

Delete ONLY files recursively under the folder and sub-folders while retaining the folder structure.

forfiles /p C:temp-new /s /c “cmd /c if @isdir==FALSE del @file”

 

Reference:

5 thoughts on “Powershell Deleting Files and Folders”

  1. What about deleting all files in a folder and its subfolders but keeping the folder and subfolder structure?

    Reply

    1. Hope below answers your query. You can straight away have this run in PS or you can even code a simple function in PS. Let me know if you are looking for any further help in this regard.

      Listing both Files and Folders:
      C:>forfiles /p C:temp-new /s

      “test”
      “test-1”
      “Tl-1.json”
      “Tl-2.json”
      “Tl-3.json”
      “Tl-4.json”
      “essay2009e.pdf”
      “info_note_1.pdf”
      “role_an.pdf”

      Listing ONLY Files:
      C:>forfiles /p C:temp-new /s /m *.*

      “Tl-1.json”
      “Tl-2.json”
      “Tl-3.json”
      “Tl-4.json”
      “essay2009e.pdf”
      “info_note_1.pdf”
      “role_an.pdf”

      Listing ONLY Folders
      C:>forfiles /p C:temp-new /s /c “cmd /c if @isdir==TRUE echo @file is a directory”

      “test” is a directory
      “test-1” is a directory

      Deleting ONLY Files
      C:>forfiles /p C:temp-new /s /c “cmd /c if @isdir==FALSE del @file”

      Checking if ANY Files left out
      C:>forfiles /p C:temp-new /s /m *.*
      ERROR: Files of type “*.*” not found.

      Checking Folders remain in-tact
      C:>forfiles /p C:temp-new /s

      “test”
      “test-1”

      C:>

      Reply

  2. Can you delete all files & subfolders, excluding certain subfolders. Example: domain computer with 100’s of user profiles. Being able to delete all except default & public. Thanks!

    Reply

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