The command line can be used to delete files in Windows by using the del or erase commands. To delete a single file, use the following syntax:
del /f filename
Where filename is the name of the file that you wish to delete. The /f switch stands for “force,” and it deletes read-only files.
To delete multiple files at the same time, you can use the following syntax:
del /f filename1 filename2 filename3
Where the filenames are the names of the files you want to delete.
You can also delete multiple files that match a certain pattern (e.g., all files with the .txt file extension) with the following syntax:
del /f *.txt
This syntax will delete all files in the current directory with the .txt extension.
You can also use wildcards in the filenames to delete multiple files at once. The * character is used as a wildcard, standing in place of characters that you don’t know. For example, to delete files that start with the letter “a”, use the following syntax:
del /f a*
This will delete files in the current directory whose filenames begin with the letter “a”.
You can use the /s switch to delete files in subdirectories as well. For example, to delete all files ending in .txt in the current directory and all of its subdirectories, use the following syntax:
del /f /s *.txt
It is important to note that the del command does not send deleted files to the Recycle Bin; deleted files are permanently erased from your computer. Therefore, it is good practice to always back up your files before deleting them with the del command.
The erase command is an alternative to del that behaves similarly. The syntax for deleting a single file is
erase filename
where filename is the name of the file that you wish to delete. To delete multiple files, use the same syntax as for the del command (with multiple filenames), as follows:
erase filename1 filename2 filename3
Once again, you can use wildcards to delete multiple files at once. For example, to delete files that start with the letter “a”, use the following syntax:
erase a*
And, to delete all files ending in .txt in the current directory and all of its subdirectories, use the following syntax:
erase /s *.txt
As with the del command, the erase command does not send deleted files to the Recycle Bin; deleted files are permanently erased. It is therefore important to remember to back up your files before deleting them with the erase command.