Windows 10: Delete undeletable file that does not exist

I spent hours trying to sort his out. I found the answer here: https://social.technet.microsoft.co...-could-not-find-this-item?forum=winserver8gen. Special thanks to Razya73 https://social.technet.microsoft.com/profile/rayza73/?ws=usercard-mini.

Unfortunately it took me another 4 hours and 15 more pages before I could make sense of it. When I finally did, I wrote it down for myself. To save anyone else 4+ hours on this problem I also posted it in my pcloud public folder. Much like OneDrive or Google Drive. The short link is http://bit.ly/DELmagic. Please give any thanks to Razya73. Probably not his fault I didn't get it until several other sites and other people explained it. Frankly, I don't know why it worked when everything else didn't.

`del "\\?\xyz "` where xyz is the drive:\directory\filename.

Maybe someone could explain what "\\?\" does that is so magic?

:)

 

undeleting files

How do I undelete a file I just deleted?

 

Deleted Media

file undeleters, like one on tuneup utilities. But if something was written to disk after deletion, data probably are gone.

 

Cannot delete Windows Apps files

Suggested options for undeletable items:
1. Delete when Windows is not running
a. from a command prompt via SHIFT + left click Restart and navigate to a command prompt
- if you are very confident in using it.
b. boot your system from a boot disk such as Kyhi's availabel from the top of the Software and Apps section. Familiar file explorer

2. Use a 3rd party utility which can be set to delete on reboot (outside Windows).
e.g.
EMCO Moveonboot
Fileassassin (files only)

Note: radical steps to remove all those saves relatively little space.
Much safer to use the tutorials here to remove unwanted apps using Powershell.