Powershell script to delete particular type of file extension without removing the Folders

Question

Hello All,

I have requirement to remove the particular type of files extension from the computer without removing the folders. The files are in various path of the system and i have planned to map the C:/ and also log need to be stored for what are all the files are getting deleted. Any advise or suggestion on this are highly appreciated.

Planned to use the SCCM to run the script to get it deleted on the remote machines.

Below are the scripts i have came across

Remove-Item -Recurse -Path C:\Delete-Testing* -exclude dontdelete.txt,foldertokeep

Answer 1

Hi, @Loganathan R

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Q&A forum.

Please try the below script, it removes all the txt file under c:\temp, and log all the deleted files to the test.log.

$logFile = 'c:\temp\test.log'

$files = get-childitem -path C:\temp -file -recurse -include *.txt

($files).fullname >> $logFile

$files | Remove-Item

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Answer 2

Use Get-Childitem to identify the files that you wish to delete. Use include, not exclude.

get-childitem -path C:\temp -file -recurse -include *.txt

Then list off the files and first test with the WhatIf switch.

$files = get-childitem -path C:\temp -file -recurse -include *.txt
"Here are the file that will be deleted."
($files).fullname
""
"Performing delete."
$files | Remove-Item -whatif

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