Powershell delete files only from directory

Question

I'm trying to delete all files (but not directories) in D:\MyTemp folder, I've tried:

Remove-Item "D:\MyTemp"
Remove-Item "D:\MyTemp\*"

However, when I check, all the files are still there.
What am I missing?

score 20 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:16

20

Try this:

Get-ChildItem *.* -recurse | Where { ! $_.PSIsContainer }

To delete all files in the specified directory only (ignoring sub-dirs):

Remove-Item "D:\MyTemp\*.*" | Where { ! $_.PSIsContainer }

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:16

Community

answered Nov 02 '12 at 11:56

bourne

1

This only lists file in the current directory – SteB Nov 02 '12 at 12:15
My bad, wasn't sure if you wanted to do recurse. I'll edit the original. You can just add -recurse to the Get-ChildItem command – bourne Nov 02 '12 at 12:17
This works (only delete files from specified directory, ignoring sub-dirs): Remove-Item "D:\MyTemp\." | Where { ! $_.PSIsContainer } – SteB Nov 02 '12 at 12:22
That's great. Glad you got it working. – bourne Nov 02 '12 at 12:42
Sorry btw SteB, I just noticed I forgot to include the Remove-Item. It's going to be a long day wow! – bourne Nov 02 '12 at 12:50
NB: running update-help then help remove-item -examples you'll see that remove-item's -recurse parameter is faulty; hence the need to use get-childitem to take advantage of that parameter. – JohnLBevan Nov 07 '14 at 18:27

79E09796 · Answer 2 · 2016-02-17T15:23:18.013

16

The accepted answer didn't work for me, instead I needed:

Get-Childitem -File | Foreach-Object {Remove-Item $_.FullName}

To include folders as well as files, add -Recurse:

Get-Childitem -File -Recurse | Foreach-Object {Remove-Item $_.FullName}

edited Feb 17 '16 at 15:23

answered Jul 03 '14 at 11:02

79E09796

1

This deletes files from subdirectories as well - possibly not what the OP intended... – Robbie Dee Feb 17 '16 at 14:22
1

This answer should be accepted one. I choose you! – Teoman shipahi Jan 11 '17 at 21:24

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 17 '16 at 14:19

4

You were nearly there, you just needed:

Remove-Item "D:\MyTemp\*.*"

answered Feb 17 '16 at 14:19

Robbie Dee

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 12 '20 at 09:30

The simplest way I'm aware of would be the following (obviously navigate to the directory you want to empty files from):

Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse | Remove-Item

I'm not sure if this requires a minimum version but I'm pretty sure this has worked for a long time.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 17 '17 at 15:50

1

@bourne almost had it:

Get-ChildItem *.* -recurse | Where { ! $_.PSIsContainer } | remove-item

answered Jan 17 '17 at 15:50

Mordechai

3

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review – rnxrx Jan 17 '17 at 21:47
What do you mean it doesn't provide an answer? What does it do? It is the only complete answer on the page. – Mordechai Jan 18 '17 at 06:31
It's not a self-sufficient answer. To the point in your response it's a correction to another answer and should be included as a comment. – rnxrx Jan 18 '17 at 16:25
sorry, I guess you don't understand powershell. Just because I refer to another answer, it doesn't make mine any less "self-sufficient", – Mordechai Jan 18 '17 at 18:05
you might want to explain the issue with the other answer, making it a command. Otherwise you might want to explain what your Powershell command does – Dennis Nolte Jan 19 '17 at 12:42
this is a lot of back and forth over nothing. I was just trying to be helpful. @Dennis, your comment isn't comprehensible, so I can't answer it. If this site isn't interested in helpful answers, I apologize and will go to a "read only" mode. – Mordechai Jan 19 '17 at 14:44

5 Answers5