Remove file command line windows command

Some folders and files are impossible to delete using Windows Explorer. These include files with long paths, names or reserved names like CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL etc. You will get an Access Denied error message when you try to delete these files using Windows Explorer, even if you are an administrator.

Regardless of the reason, these can only be force deleted using command line only. This article explains using cmd to delete folder or file successfully.

Before we begin

Here are some important things for you to understand before we dig into removing files and folders using Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell. These tips will help you understand the terms and some basic rules of the commands that will be used further in the article.

The most important thing to remember here is the syntax of the path and file/folder name. When typing file name, notice whether there is a gap (space) in it. For example, if the folder name has no space in it, it can be written as-is. However, if there is a gap in it, it will need to be written within parenthesis (“”). Here is an example:

Another thing to remember is that you might see different outcomes while removing folders that are already empty, and folders that have some content in them. Having said that, you will need to use the dedicated options in the command to remove content from within a folder along with the main folder itself. This is called a recursive action.

Furthermore, you must also know how to change your working directory when inside a Command Line Interface. Use the command cd to change your directory, followed by the correct syntax. Here are some examples:

One last thing that might come in handy is being able to view what content is available in the current working directory. This is especially helpful so that you type in the correct spelling of the target file or folder. To view the contents of the current working directory in Command Prompt and PowerShell, type in Dir.

Now that we have the basic knowledge, let us show you how you can delete files and folders using the command line on a Windows PC.

By default, there are 2 command-line interfaces built into Windows 10 – Command Prompt and Windows PowerShell. Both of these are going to be used‌ ‌to‌ ‌delete‌ ‌content‌ ‌from‌ ‌a‌ ‌computer.

How to remove files and folders using Command Prompt

Let us start with the very basic commands and work our way up from there for Command Prompt. We recommend that you use Command Prompt with administrative privileges so that you do not encounter any additional prompts that you already might have.

Del/Erase command in cmd

Del and Erase commands in Command Prompt are aliases of one another. Meaning, both perform the same function regardless of which one you use. These can be used to remove individual items (files) in the current working directory. Remember that it cannot be used to delete the directories (folders) themselves.

Use either of the following commands to do so:

Tip: Use the Tab button to automatically complete paths and file/folder names.

Del File/FolderName

Erase File/FolderName

Replace File/FolderName with the name of the item you wish to remove. Here is an example of us removing files from the working directory:

If you try to remove items from within a folder, whether empty or not, you will be prompted for a confirmation action, such as the one below:

In such a scenario, you will need to enter Y for yes and N for no to confirm. If you select yes, the items directly within the folder will be removed, but the directory (folder) will remain. However, the subdirectories within the folder will not be changed at all.

This problem can be resolved by using the /s switch. In order to remove all of the content within the folder and its subdirectories, you will need to add the recursive option in the command (/s). The slash followed by “s” signifies the recursive option. Refer to the example below to fully understand the concept:

We will be using the Del command here to recursively remove the text files within the folder “Final folder,” which also has a subdirectory named “Subfolder.” Subfolder also has 2 sample text files that we will be recursively removing with the following command:

Del /s "Final folder"

Here is its output:

As you can see in the image above, we had to enter “y” twice – once for each folder. with each confirmation, 2 text files were removed, as we had stated earlier in this example. However, if we use File Explorer, we can still see that both the directories – “Final folder” and “Subfolder” – are still there, but the content inside them is removed.

You can also make another tweak to the command so that it is executed silently and you will not be prompted for confirmation. Here is how:

Del /s /q "Final folder"

The /q illustrates that the action be taken quietly.

Rmdir /rd command in cmd

Similar to Del and Erase, rmdir and rd are also aliases for one another, which means to remove directory. These commands are used to remove the entire directory and subdirectories (recursively) including their contents. Use the command below to do so:

rmdir "New Folder"

The above command will remove the “New folder” only if it is empty. If a folder has subdirectories, you might get the following prompt:

In this case, we will need to apply the option for recursive deletion of items as we have done earlier with the Del command.

rmdir /s "Final folder"

Of course, this can also be performed with the /q option so that you are not prompted with a confirmation.

rmdir /s /q "Final folder"

Delete multiple files and folders

Up until now, we have completed the task of deleting single items per command. Now let’s see how you can remove multiple selective files or folders. Use the command below to do so:

For files:

Del "File1.txt" "File3.txt" "File5.txt"

For directories:

rd "Folder1" "Folder3" "Folder5"

Here is a before and after comparison of the directory where both of the above commands were executed:

You can also use an asterisk (*) concatenated with a file type or file name to perform bulk removal of files with the Del command. However, Microsoft has removed the support for the use of asterisks with rmdir so that users do not accidentally remove entire folders.

Here is an example of us removing all .txt files from our current working directory:

Del "*.txt"

Delete files and folders in any directory

We are working on removing content within the current working directory. However, you can also use the commands we have discussed till now to remove files and folders from any directory within your computer.

Simply put the complete path of the item you want to delete in enclosed parenthesis, and it shall be removed, as in the example below:

Check the existence of file or folder then remove using IF command

We have already discussed that you can view the contents of the working directory by typing in Dir in Command Prompt. However, you can apply an “if” condition in Command Prompt to remove an item if it exists. If it will not, the action would not be taken. Here is how:

if exist File/FolderName (rmdir /s/q File/FolderName)

Replace File/FolderName in both places with the name of the item (and extension if applicable) to be deleted. Here is an example:
if exist Desktop (rmdir /s/q Desktop)

How to remove files and folders using Windows PowerShell

The commands in Windows PowerShell to delete and remove content from your PC are very much similar to those of Command Prompt, with a few additional aliases. The overall functionality and logic are the same.

We recommend that you launch Windows PowerShell with administrative privileges before proceeding.

The main thing to note here is that unlike Command Prompt, all commands can be used for both purposes – removing individual files as well as complete directories. We ask you to be careful while using PowerShell to delete files and folders, as the directory itself is also removed.

The good thing is that you do not need to specify recursive action. If a directory has sub-directories, PowerShell will confirm whether you wish to continue with your deletion, which will also include all child objects (subdirectories).

Here is a list of all the commands/aliases that can be used in PowerShell to remove an item:

• Del
• Rm-dir
• remove-item
• Erase
• Rd
• Ri
• Rm

We tested all of these commands in our working directory and each of them was successful in deleting the folders as well as individual items, as can be seen below:

As can be seen above, the syntax of all the aliases is the same. You can use any of the commands below to delete an item using PowerShell:

Del File/FolderName
Rm-dir File/FolderName
remove-item File/FolderName
Erase File/FolderName
Rd File/FolderName
Ri File/FolderName
Rm File/FolderName

Delete multiple files and folders

You can also delete multiple selective files and folders just as we did while using Command Prompt. The only difference is that you will need to provide the complete path of each item, even if you are in the same working directory. Use the command below to do so:

Del "DriveLetter:PathItemName", "DriveLetter:PathItemName"

Remember to append the file type if the item is not a directory (.txt, .png, etc.), as we have done in the example below:

You can also use an asterisk (*) concatenated with a file type or file name to perform bulk removal of files with the Del command, as done in Command Prompt. Here is an example:

The command shown above will remove all.txt files in the directory “New folder.”

Delete files and folders in any directory

You can also remove an item in a different directory, just like we did in Command Prompt. Simply enter the complete path to the item in PowerShell, as we have done below:

Delete files and folders with complex and long paths using the command line

Sometimes you may encounter an error while trying to delete an item that may suggest that the path is too long, or the item cannot be deleted as it is buried too deep. Here is a neat trick you can apply using both Command Prompt and PowerShell to initially empty the folder, and then remove it using any of the methods above.

Use the command below to copy the contents of one folder (which is empty) into a folder that cannot be deleted. This will also make the destination folder empty, hence making it removable.

robocopy "D:EmptyFolder" D:FolderToRemove /MIR

In this scenario, the EmptyFolder is the source folder that we have deliberately kept empty to copy it to the target folder “FolderToRemove.”

You will now see that the folder that was previously unremovable is now empty. You can proceed to delete it using any of the methods discussed in this article.

Closing words

The command line is a blessing for Windows users. You can use any of these commands to remove even the most stubborn files and folders on your computer.

Let us know which solution worked for you in the comments section down below.

Also see:

The Windows Command Processor cmd.exe has two internal commands for deletion of files and folders:

1. The command DEL is for the deletion of files with usage help output on running in a Windows command prompt window either help del or del /?.
2. The command RMDIR or with shorter name RD is for removal of directories with usage help output on running in a Windows command prompt window either help rmdir or rmdir /? or help rd or rd /?.

Deletion of all *.svn files in an entire folder tree

There can be used in a Windows command prompt window or a Windows batch file the following command to delete really all files of which long or short 8.3 file name is matched by the wildcard pattern *.svn in the directory %USERPROFILE%Projects or any of its subdirectories:

del /A /F /Q /S "%USERPROFILE%Projects*.svn" >nul 2>&1

The usage of option /A to match all files independent on the file attributes replaces the implicit default /A-H to ignore hidden files. So even files with hidden attribute are deleted by this command because of using the option /A. Files matched by wildcard pattern *.svn with hidden attribute set are ignored on not using the option /A.

The option /F forces a deletion of files with file extension .svn which have the read-only attribute set. There would be output the error message Access is denied. if a *.svn file has the read-only attribute set and the option /F is not used on running the command DEL.

The quiet option /Q prevents the user confirmation prompt Are you sure (Y/N)?.

The option /S results in searching not only in the specified directory, but also in all its subdirectories including those with hidden attribute set even on not using option /A for files of which long or short 8.3 name is matched by the wildcard pattern *.svn.

The two redirections >nul and 2>&1 result in redirecting the list of deleted files output to handle STDOUT (standard output) and the error messages output to handle STDERR (standard error) to the device NUL to suppress every output.

There are deleted also hard links and symbolic links matched by the wildcard pattern *.svn on using this command, but not the files linked to on having a file name not ending with .svn or being in a different directory tree.

Files matched by the wildcard pattern *.svn currently opened by a process (program/application) with using shared access permissions to deny all other processes to delete the file as long as being opened by this process are not deleted by this command. File system permissions can result also in files not being deleted by this command.

Deletion of all *.svn folders in an entire folder tree

There can be used in a Windows command prompt window the following command to remove really all folders matching in long or short 8.3 folder name the wildcard pattern *.svn in the directory %USERPROFILE%Projects and all its subdirectories:

for /F "delims=" %I in ('dir "%USERPROFILE%Projects*.svn" /AD /B /S 2^>nul') do @rd /Q /S "%I" 2>nul

The same command line for usage in a batch file containing @echo off at top is:

for /F "delims=" %%I in ('dir "%USERPROFILE%Projects*.svn" /AD /B /S 2^>nul') do rd /Q /S "%%I" 2>nul

There is executed on more cmd.exe in background with option /c and the command line specified between ' as additional arguments to run in background the Windows Command Processor internal command DIR to search

• in the specified directory %USERPROFILE%Projects
• and in all its subdirectories because of option /S
• for just directories because of using the option /AD which includes also junctions and symbolic directory links
• matching the wildcard pattern *.svn.

The file system entries (= directory names) matched by these criteria are output in bare format because of option /B with full path because of option /S to handle STDOUT of the background command process without surrounding " even on full directory name containing a space or one of these characters &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~. The error message output by DIR on not finding any name matching these criteria is redirected to device NUL to suppress it.

The redirection operator > must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when the Windows Command Processor parses this command line before executing the command FOR which executes the embedded dir command line with using a separate command process started in background.

The output list of directory names with their full paths to handle STDOUT is captured by cmd.exe processing the batch file and processed by FOR after started cmd.exe closed itself.

The FOR /F option delims= defines an empty list of string delimiters which results in each entire directory name is assigned completely one after the other to the specified loop variable I.

The command RD is executed to delete quietly because of option /Q the directory with all files and all subdirectories because of option /S.

There are deleted also junctions (soft links) and symbolic directory links matched by the wildcard pattern *.svn on using this command, but not the directories linked to on having a directory name not ending with .svn or being in a different directory tree.

A directory matched by the wildcard pattern *.svn in which a file is currently opened by a process (program/application) with using shared access permissions to deny all other processes to delete the file as long as being opened by this process is not deleted by this command and of course also no directory above the directory containing the file which cannot be deleted at the moment. File system permissions can result also in directories not being deleted by this command. Windows prevents by default also the deletion of a directory which is the current working directory of any running process.

Other useful information regarding to deletion of files and folders

The directory path %USERPROFILE%Projects can be removed completely or replaced by . in the commands above to delete the files and folders matching the wildcard pattern *.svn in the current directory of the Windows Command Processor process which executes the commands.

The directory path %USERPROFILE%Projects can be replaced by %~dp0 to delete the files and folders matching the wildcard pattern *.svn in the directory of the batch file on using the command lines above in a batch file independent on which directory is the current directory on execution of the batch file.

The directory path %USERPROFILE%Projects can be replaced also by a relative path. Please read the Microsoft documentation about Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces for more details about relative paths.

For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.

• del /?
• dir /?
• for /?
• rd /?

Run mklink /? for help on how to create file and directory links explained very well by MKLink.

See also:

• Microsoft documentation for the Windows commands
• SS64.com — A-Z index of Windows CMD commands

Is this article up to date?