DEL and DELTREE
DEL
Delete one or more files.
Syntax
DEL [options] [/A:file_attributes] files_to_delete
Key
| Switch/data | What it does |
|---|---|
| files_to_delete | This may be a filename, a list of files or a Wildcard options |
| /P | Give a Yes/No Prompt before deleting. |
| /F | Ignore read-only setting and delete anyway (FORCE) |
| /S | Delete from all Subfolders (DELTREE) |
| /Q | Quiet mode, do not give a Yes/No Prompt before deleting. |
| /A | Select files to delete based on file_attributes |
file_attributes
| Switch | What it does |
|---|---|
| R | Read-only |
| -R | NOT Read-only |
| S | System |
| -S | NOT System |
| H | Hidden |
| -H | NOT Hidden |
| A | Archive |
| -A | NOT Archive |
Wildcards
These can be combined with part of a filename
- * Match any characters
- ? Match any ONE character
Examples
To delete HelloWorld.TXT
DEL HelloWorld.TXT
To delete Hello Big World.TXT
DEL "Hello Big World.TXT"
To delete all files that start with the letter A
DEL A*
To delete all files that end with the letter A
DEL *A.*
To delete all files with a .DOC extension
DEL *.DOC
To delete all read only files
DEL /a:R *
To delete all files including any that are read only
DEL /F *
Files are sometimes created with the reserved names: CON, AUX, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, PRN, NUL. To delete these use the syntax:
DEL \\.\C:\somedir\LPT1
Folders
If a folder name is given instead of a file, all files in the folder will be deleted, but the folder itself will not be removed.
Temporary Files
You should clear out TEMP files on a regular basis - this is best done at startup when no applications are running. To delete all files in all subfolders of C:\temp\ but leave the folder structure intact:
DEL /F /S /Q \%TEMP\%
When clearing out the TEMP directory it is not generally worthwhile removing the subfolders too - they don't use much space and constantly deleting and recreating them can potentially increase fragmentation within the Master File Table. Deleting a file will not prevent third party utilities from un-deleting it again, however you can turn any file into a zero-byte file to destroy the file allocation chain like this:
TYPE nul > C:\examples\MyFile.txt
DEL C:\examples\MyFile.txt
Notes
ERASE is a synonym for DEL.
If Command Extensions are enabled (default) DEL /S [path]filename(s) will display a list of the files deleted. If Command Extensions are disabled: DEL /S [path]filename(s) will display a list of any files it cannot find.
DELTREE
Previous versions of Windows had the DELTREE command that deletes all files and sub folders, DEL /s will delete all files, RD /s will remove all files and folders including the root folder.
The following command script will also provide DELTREE functionality:
@echo off
pushd \%1
del /q *.*
for /f "Tokens=*" \%\%G in ('dir /B') do rd /s /q "\%\%G"
popd
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