Using the Remove-Item Cmdlet
Deleting a File or Folder (Or Other Type of Object)
The Remove-Item cmdlet does exactly what the name implies: it enables you to get rid of things once and for all. Tired of the file C:\Scripts\Test.txt? Then delete it:
Remove-Item c:\scripts\test.txt
You can also use wildcard characters to remove multiple items. For example, this command removes all the files in C:\Scripts:
Remove-Item c:\scripts\*
There is one catch, however. Suppose C:\Scripts contains subfolders. In that case, you’ll be prompted as to whether or not you really do want to delete everything in the Scripts folder:
Confirm
The item at C:\test\scripts has children and the -recurse parameter was not specified.
If you continue, all children will be removed with the item. Are you sure you want to continue?
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help
(default is "Y"):
Is there a way to bypass this prompt? Yep; just tack the -recurse parameter onto the end of your command:
Remove-Item c:\scripts\* -recurse
Here’s an interesting variation. Suppose the Scripts folder contains a bunch of files and you’d like to delete them all. Wait: maybe not all, maybe you’d like to leave any .wav files. No problem; just use the -exclude parameter and indicate the file types that should be excluded from the deletion:
Remove-Item c:\scripts\* -exclude *.wav
What’s that? Now you’d like to remove just .wav and .mp3 files, leaving all other file types alone? All you had to do was ask (and use the -include parameter):
Remove-Item c:\scripts\* -include .wav,.mp3
As you’ve probably figured out, if you use the -include parameter the cmdlet will act only on those items specified as part of that parameter. (And, yes, you can specify multiple items; just separate items using commas.) By contrast, if you use the -exclude parameter those items will be exempt from the cmdlet actions.
And yes, if you want to get really fancy you can use both -include and -exclude in the same command. What do you suppose will happen when we run this command?
Remove-Item c:\scripts\* -include *.txt -exclude *test*
You got it: all the .txt files (as indicated by the -include parameter) in the C:\Scripts folder will be deleted, except for any files that have the string value test anywhere in the file name (as indicated by the -exclude parameter). Try some different variations, and it will soon make perfect sense.
Incidentally, the Remove-Item cmdlet has a -whatif parameter that doesn’t actually remove anything but simply tells you what would happen if you did call Remove-Item. What do you mean that doesn’t make any sense? Here, take a look at this command:
Remove-Item c:\scripts\*.vbs -whatif
If we run this command, none of the .vbs files in the folder C:\Scripts will be removed; however, we will get back information like this, which lets us know which files would be removed if we called Remove-Item without the -whatif parameter:
What if: Performing operation "Remove File" on Target "C:\scripts\imapi.vbs".
What if: Performing operation "Remove File" on Target "C:\scripts\imapi2.vbs".
What if: Performing operation "Remove File" on Target "C:\scripts\methods.vbs".
What if: Performing operation "Remove File" on Target "C:\scripts\read-write.vbs
".
What if: Performing operation "Remove File" on Target "C:\scripts\test.vbs".
What if: Performing operation "Remove File" on Target "C:\scripts\winsat.vbs".
In addition, you can remove things other than files and folders. For example, this command gets rid of an alias named show:
Remove-Item alias:\show
Make a note of how you specify the location: alias:\. That’s standard notation for all Windows PowerShell drives: the drive letter followed by a colon followed by a \. For example, to switch to the Windows PowerShell drive for environment variables use this command:
Set-Location env:\
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