How to Delete Folder in PowerShell

1. Use the Remove-item Cmdlet to Delete a Folder in PowerShell
2. Use Command Prompt to Delete a Folder in PowerShell
3. Use the FileSystem Object Method to Delete a Folder in PowerShell
4. Using .Net Class to Delete a Folder in PowerShell

The folder delete action in PowerShell removes a folder from a given location, whether it is a local or shared path.

This article focuses on the different methods to delete a folder using PowerShell.

Use the Remove-item Cmdlet to Delete a Folder in PowerShell

One or more objects can be removed with the Remove-Item cmdlet.

We can use two different syntaxes for deletion. However, it should be noted that these two can be used separately but not combined.

• Syntax 1

Remove-Item
[-Path] <String[]>
[-Filter <String>]
[-Include <String[]>]
[-Exclude <String[]>]
[-Recurse]
[-Force]
[-Credential <PSCredential>]
[-WhatIf]
[-Confirm]
[-Stream <String[]>]
[<CommonParameters>]

• Syntax 2

Remove-Item
-LiteralPath <String[]>
[-Filter <String>]
[-Include <String[]>]
[-Exclude <String[]>]
[-Recurse]
[-Force]
[-Credential <PSCredential>]
[-WhatIf]
[-Confirm]
[-Stream <String[]>]
[<CommonParameters>]

Both -Path and -Literalpath cannot be used in the same syntax.

Remove-item Parameters

The name and the description of the most common parameters used are given below.

Let’s look at some examples along with different syntax uses,

Example 1:

Here we will delete the test1 folder using the command mentioned below, and in the end, you can see that the folder will be deleted.

Remove-Item 'D:\temp\Test1'

Example 2:

We’ll recursively delete the folder test2. PowerShell checks to see if the directory is empty in the previous example. It will just remove the folder in this scenario.

Remove-Item 'D:\temp\test2' -Recurse

Example 3: Using -LiteralPath in -RemoveItem

The -LiteralPath is used along with the -Force and -Recurse parameters. So it forcefully deletes the items along with the folder in the given path without any confirmation prompts.

Remove-Item -LiteralPath "foldertodelete" -Force -Recurse

Example 4: Remove-item as the pipeline

We first use the Get-ChildItem to retrieve the folders and files, and then we use the Remove-Item to pipeline the results from the previous command.

Get-ChildItem C:\Temp\TestFolder\ | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -Verbose

The only problem here is that it only deletes the contents of the folder but not the folder itself; therefore, other code snippets must be added to delete the folder.

Use Command Prompt to Delete a Folder in PowerShell

Most command-line users will use the rmdir command to remove or delete folders. The syntax is rmdir along with the folder path, as shown below.

rmdir C:\Temp\TestFolder

Use the FileSystem Object Method to Delete a Folder in PowerShell

Different options for removing a folder are available in PowerShell. One of these is the File System Object Method. There are two phases to this procedure. In the first step, we’ll construct a file system object; next, in the second step, we’ll use the DeleteFolder() function to destroy the associated object’s folder.

So to do this, first create a test.ps1 file and then add the following commands given below.

$object = New-Object -ComObject Scripting.FileSystemObject
$object.DeleteFolder("C:\Temp\TestFolder")

Finally, execute the test.ps1 file, and it will delete our intended folder.

Using .Net Class to Delete a Folder in PowerShell

In PowerShell, the System.IO.Directory class and the Delete() method are used by the.NET framework to delete a folder. If the supplied folder is not empty, this operation will throw an exception:

&gt [System.IO.Directory]::Delete("C:\Temp\TestFolder")

To remove this non-empty folder, use the $true option in the Delete() function:

System.IO.Directory]::Delete("C:\Temp\TestFolder", $true)