Windows 10: Delete Folder in Windows 10

How to: Delete Folder in Windows 10

How to Delete a Folder in Windows 10


This tutorial will show you different ways on how to delete a folder in Windows 10.

*Warning Deleting a folder will also delete all contents inside the folder.

*note Deleting a folder from a removable drive will be permanently deleted by default.

*note Deleting a folder from an internal drive will be deleted to the empty the Recycle Bin.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Delete Folder using Keyboard Shortcut
• Option Two: Delete Folder from File Explorer Ribbon
• Option Three: Delete Folder from Context Menu
• Option Four: Permanently Delete Folder in PowerShell
• Option Five: Permanently Delete Folder in Command Prompt
• Option Six: Permanently Delete Folder in Command Prompt at Boot

OPTION ONE [/i] Delete Folder using Keyboard Shortcut
1. While on your desktop (Win+D) or in File Explorer (Win+E), select the folder(s) you want to delete, and press the keys you want in the table below.
[table][tr][td]Keyboard Shortcut[/td] [td]Action Performed[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Ctrl+D[/td] [td]Delete to Recycle Bin[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Del or Delete[/td] [td]Delete to Recycle Bin[/td] [/tr] [tr][td]Shift+Delete[/td] [td]Permanently delete[/td] [/tr] [/table]

2. If you chose to permanently delete, then either click/tap on Yes, press Y, or press Enter to confirm. (see screenshot below)








OPTION TWO [/i] Delete Folder from File Explorer Ribbon
1. Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2. Click/tap on Home tab. (see screenshot below)

3. Navigate to and select the folder(s) you want to delete.

4. Perform the action you want to do below:
A) Click/tap on the Delete button in the ribbon to delete to Recycle Bin.

OR

B) Click/tap on the arrow under the Delete button in the ribbon, and click/tap on Recycle or Delete permanently in the drop menu for what you want.




5. If you chose to permanently delete, then either click/tap on Yes, press Y, or press Enter to confirm. (see screenshot below)








OPTION THREE [/i] Delete Folder from Context Menu
1. Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2. Navigate to and select the folder(s) you want to delete.

3. Perform the action you want to do below:

A) Right click or press and hold on the selected folder(s), and either press the D key or click/tap on Delete. (see screenshot below)



OR

B) Press and hold Shift key and right click on the selected folder(s), release the Shift key, and either press the D key or click/tap on Delete. (see screenshot below)








OPTION FOUR [/i] Permanently Delete Folder in PowerShell
*note For more Remove-Item command usage details, see: Remove-Item | Microsoft Docs
1. Open elevated PowerShell depending on the required rights to delete the folder you want.

2. Type the command below into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow Remove-Item -Path "Full path of folder" -Recurse -Force

*note Substitute Full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder you want to delete.

For example: Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\Brink\Desktop\Folder" -Recurse -Force




3. When finished, you can close the Powershell window if you like.





OPTION FIVE [/i] Permanently Delete Folder in Command Prompt
*note For more rd command usage details, see: rd | Microsoft Docs
1. Open a elevated command prompt depending on the required rights to delete the folder you want.

2. Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow rd /s /q "Full path of folder"

*note Substitute Full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder you want to delete.

For example: rd /s /q "C:\Users\Brink\Desktop\Folder"




3. When finished, you can close the command prompt window if you like.





OPTION SIX [/i] Permanently Delete Folder in Command Prompt at Boot
1. Boot to a command prompt at boot.

2. To Verify Drive Letter the Folder is in at Boot
*note The drive letter may not always be the same at boot as in Windows, so be sure to verify its drive letter before doing the command in step 3 below for this to work.
A) Type diskpart into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

B) Type list volume into the command prompt, and press Enter.

C) From the listed volumes, look for and verify the drive letter of the drive that includes the folder you want to delete.

D) In the command prompt, type exit, and press Enter.





3. To Delete the Folder
A) Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

*Arrow rd /s /q "Full path of folder"

*note Substitute Full path of folder in the command above with the actual full path of the folder you want to delete. Be sure to use the correct drive letter from step 2.

For example: rd /s /q "D:\Windows.old"

B) Close

the command prompt.




4. Click/tap on the Continue button to restart the computer and continue to Windows 10. (see screenshot below)




That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Create a New Folder in Windows 10
• How to Rename Folder in Windows 10
• How to Set Recycle Bin to Permanently Delete Files Immediately in Windows 10
• How to Delete a File in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Empty Folder context menu in Windows 10
• How to Add Permanently Delete to Context Menu in Windows 10
• How to Add Secure Delete to Context Menu in Windows 10
• How to Change Default New Folder Name Template in Windows
• How to Change Icon of a Folder in Windows 10
• How to Change a Folder Picture in Windows 10
• What is Windows.old folder and how to delete Windows.old folder in Windows 10
• What is $SysReset folder and how to delete $SysReset folder in Windows 10
• What is $GetCurrent folder and how to delete $GetCurrent folder in Windows 10
• What is Windows10Upgrade folder and how to delete Windows10Upgrade folder in Windows 10

:)

 

Trouble deleting a folder

Thanks for the suggestion but it says "delete folder failed for E:\....." for each folder I try.

*Confused

Will I be forever stuck with these unnecessary folders? *Oh Well hwell:

 

C windows installer folder - Delete?

He can do symbolic link redirection and move the files in it to a different location. *Wink
Better try it out in a virtual of first. Just a suggestion.

Like:
First move everything in c:\windows\installer to d:\installercache
Then delete c:\windows\installer folder
Then type this in command mode as admin
mklink /d c:\windows\installer d:\installercache

Removing those installer files is a bad idea. it might prevent you from updating or uninstalling apps.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Unable to delete a folder - Invalid folder name


Suggestion:

1. Run chkdsk x: /r to make sure that there's no HD corruption.
   x: is the drive containing the folder you want to delete.
2. Try to delete the folder again. If still does not work, go to step 3.
3. Download: Download - Linux Mint and create a bootable USB using: Rufus - Create bootable USB
4. Boot up with Linux Mint and try to delete the folder again.
   NOTE: Unlike WinPE. Linux does not have any Windows permission imposed to it so it is easier to delete.

 

Windows 8 - delete windows folders in another drive

I have the problem (from Windows 8) to delete the folders windows and programs on a secondary disk on which it was 7 .... know how to get full control to delete those folders?