how to empty recyclebin through command prompt

Question

Usually we delete the recycle bin contents by right-clicking it with the mouse and selecting  Empty Recycle Bin   But I have a requirement where I need to delete the recycle bin contents using the command prompt  Is this possible  If so  how can I achieve it

User · Answer

I know I m a little late to the party  but I thought I might contribute my subjectively more graceful solution   I was looking for a script that would empty the Recycle Bin with an API call  rather than crudely deleting all files and folders from the filesystem   Having failed in my attempts to RecycleBinObject InvokeVerb  Empty Recycle  amp Bin    which apparently only works in XP or older   I stumbled upon discussions of using a function embedded in shell32 dll called SHEmptyRecycleBin   from a compiled language   I thought  hey  I can do that in PowerShell and wrap it in a batch script hybrid   Save this with a  bat extension and run it to empty your Recycle Bin   Run it with a  y switch to skip the confirmation      lt     batch portion  begins PowerShell multi-line comment block     empty bat -- http   stackoverflow com a 41195176 1683264   echo off  amp  setlocal  if  i    1     y  goto empty  choice  n  m  Are you sure you want to empty the Recycle Bin   y n    if not errorlevel 2 goto empty goto  EOF   empty powershell -noprofile  iex      f0    out-string    amp  amp        echo Recycle Bin successfully emptied    goto  EOF    end batch   begin PowerShell chimera   gt  Add-Type shell32         DllImport  shell32 dll        public static extern int SHEmptyRecycleBin IntPtr hwnd  string pszRootPath          int dwFlags      -Namespace System   SHERB NOCONFIRMATION   0x1  SHERB NOPROGRESSUI   0x2  SHERB NOSOUND   0x4   dwFlags    SHERB NOCONFIRMATION  res    shell32   SHEmptyRecycleBin  IntPtr   Zero   null   dwFlags   if   res     Error 0x 0 x8    1   -f  res        New-Object ComponentModel Win32Exception  res   Message   exit  res     Here s a more complex version which first invokes SHQueryRecycleBin   to determine whether the bin is already empty prior to invoking SHEmptyRecycleBin     For this one  I got rid of the choice confirmation and  y switch    lt     batch portion  begins PowerShell multi-line comment block     empty bat -- http   stackoverflow com a 41195176 1683264   echo off  amp  setlocal powershell -noprofile  iex      f0    out-string   goto  EOF    end batch   begin PowerShell chimera   gt  Add-Type     using System  using System Runtime InteropServices   namespace shell32       public struct SHQUERYRBINFO           public Int32 cbSize  public UInt64 i64Size  public UInt64 i64NumItems              public static class dll            DllImport  shell32 dll            public static extern int SHQueryRecycleBin string pszRootPath              out SHQUERYRBINFO pSHQueryRBInfo             DllImport  shell32 dll            public static extern int SHEmptyRecycleBin IntPtr hwnd  string pszRootPath              int dwFlags                rb   new-object shell32 SHQUERYRBINFO    for Win 10   PowerShell v5 try    rb cbSize    Runtime InteropServices Marshal   SizeOf  rb      for Win 7   PowerShell v2 catch    rb cbSize    Runtime InteropServices Marshal   SizeOf  rb GetType        void  shell32 dll   SHQueryRecycleBin  null   ref  rb   Current size of Recycle Bin   0 N0  bytes  -f  rb i64Size  Recycle Bin contains  0 N0  item 1    -f  rb i64NumItems    s      rb i64NumItems -ne 1    if  -not  rb i64NumItems    exit 0     dwFlags           SHERB NOCONFIRMATION    0x1      SHERB NOPROGRESSUI    0x2      SHERB NOSOUND    0x4    flags    dwFlags SHERB NOCONFIRMATION  res    shell32 dll   SHEmptyRecycleBin  IntPtr   Zero   null   flags   if   res         write-host -f yellow   Error 0x 0 x8    1   -f  res            New-Object ComponentModel Win32Exception  res   Message    else       write-host  Recycle Bin successfully emptied   -f green   exit  res

User · Answer

You can effectively  empty  the Recycle Bin from the command line by permanently deleting the Recycle Bin directory on the drive that contains the system files   In most cases  this will be the C  drive  but you shouldn t hardcode that value because it won t always be true  Instead  use the  systemdrive  environment variable    The reason that this tactic works is because each drive has a hidden  protected folder with the name  Recycle bin  which is where the Recycle Bin actually stores the deleted files and folders  When this directory is deleted  Windows automatically creates a new directory   So  to remove the directory  use the rd command  r emove d irectory  with the  s parameter  which indicates that all of the files and directories within the specified directory should be removed as well   rd  s  systemdrive   Recycle bin   Do note that this action will permanently delete all files and folders currently in the Recycle Bin from all user accounts  Additionally  you will  obviously  have to run the command from an elevated command prompt in order to have sufficient privileges to perform this action

User · Answer

Create cmd file with line   for   p in  C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z  do if exist    p   Recycle Bin  rundll32 exe advpack dll DelNodeRunDLL32    p   Recycle Bin

User · Answer

nircmd lets you do that by typing  nircmd exe emptybin   http   www nirsoft net utils nircmd-x64 zip http   www nirsoft net utils nircmd html

User · Answer

I use this powershell oneliner   gci C    recycle bin -force   remove-item -recurse -force   Works for different drives than C   too

User · Answer

You can use this PowerShell command  Clear-RecycleBin -Force  Note  If you want a confirmation prompt  remove the -Force flag

User · Answer

To stealthily remove everything  try    rd  s  q  systemdrive   Recycle bin

User · Answer

while     rd  s  q  systemdrive   RECYCLE BIN   will delete the  RECYCLE BIN folder from the system drive  which is usually c   one should consider deleting it from any other available partitions since there s an hidden  RECYCLE BIN folder in any partition in local and external drives  but not in removable drives  like USB flash drive  which don t have a  RECYCLE BIN folder   For example  I installed a program in d   in order to delete the files it moved to the Recycle Bin I should run      rd  s  q d   RECYCLE BIN   More information available at Super User at Empty recycling bin from command line

User · Answer

I prefer recycle exe from Frank P  Westlake  It provides a nice before and after status   I ve been using Frank s various utilities for well over ten years     C   gt  recycle exe  E  F Recycle Bin  ALL     Recycle Bin C   44 items  42 613 970 bytes      Recycle Bin D    0 items  0 bytes              Total   44 items  42 613 970 bytes   Emptying Recycle Bin  ALL     Recycle Bin C    0 items  0 bytes      Recycle Bin D    0 items  0 bytes              Total    0 items  0 bytes    It also has many more uses and options  output listed is from       Recycle all files and folders in C  TEMP    RECYCLE C  TEMP    List all DOC files which were recycled from any directory on the C  drive    RECYCLE  L C    DOC  Restore all DOC files which were recycled from any directory on the C  drive    RECYCLE  U C    DOC  Restore C  temp junk txt to C  docs resume txt    RECYCLE  U  C  temp junk txt   C  docs resume txt   Rename in place C  etc config cfg to C  archive config 2007 cfg    RECYCLE  R  C  etc config cfg   C  archive config 2007 cfg

User · Answer

i use these commands in a batch file to empty recycle bin   del  q  s  systemdrive   Recycle bin   for  d   x in   systemdrive   Recycle bin    do  rd  s  q    x

User · Answer

Yes  you can Make a Batch file with the following code   cd  Desktop  echo  Shell   New-Object -ComObject Shell Application  gt  gt FILENAME ps1 echo  RecBin    Shell Namespace 0xA   gt  gt FILENAME ps1 echo  RecBin Items         Remove-Item    Path -Recurse -Confirm  false   gt  gt FILENAME ps1   REM The actual lines being writen are right  exept for the last one  the actual thigs being writen are   RecBin Items       Remove-Item    Path -Recurse -Confirm  false      But since   and   screw things up  i had to make some changes   Powershell exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  C  Desktop FILENAME ps1   This basically creates a powershell script that empties the trash in the  Desktop directory  then runs it

User · Answer

All of the answers are way too complicated  OP requested a way to do this from CMD   Here you go  from cmd file    powershell exe  c    New-Object -ComObject Shell Application  NameSpace 0xA  Items        Remove-Item    Path -Recurse -Confirm  false    And yes  it will update in explorer

User · Answer

You can use a powershell script  this works for users with folder redirection as well to not have their recycle bins take up server storage space    Shell   New-Object -ComObject Shell Application  RecBin    Shell Namespace 0xA   RecBin Items       Remove-Item    Path -Recurse -Confirm  false    The above script is taken from here   If you have windows 10 and powershell 5 there is the Clear-RecycleBin commandlet   To use Clear-RecycleBin inside PowerShell without confirmation  you can use Clear-RecycleBin -Force  Official documentation can be found here

[windows] how to empty recyclebin through command prompt?

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