Let’s understand using PowerShell to find files by name, by extension, or find files recursively with different examples as given below.ĭo you know: Using IIS to get a list of websites in PowerShell! PowerShell Find files by extension in the current directory You can limit the Depth parameter to limit the number of levels to recurse. Using Recurse parameter to get items recursively from all the child containers. The Get-ChildItem cmdlet provides more flexibility for simple or advanced wildcards to find files by a search pattern. Using PowerShell Get-ChildItem cmdlet to show a list of files or directories in one or more locations. Sure some scripts already exist for that purpose by all means, use them as a reference, but if you’re willing to practice and learn, you should try to create your own.12 Conclusion PowerShell find file using Get-ChildItem Try to come up with a script that can perform disk space housekeeping for you. These built-in cmdlets are more flexible, easier, and faster to use than when using WMI. Know that you should always use the Get-ChildItem and Remove-Item cmdlet to remove files. In this article, you’ve seen the two different ways you can use PowerShell to delete files with built-in cmdlets and WMI/CIM. Get-CimInstance with WMI QueryĪs you can see from the output shown above, listing the files in C:\windows\web almost took ten times longer using Get-CimInstance than the time it took for Get-ChildItem to complete!Īlso, did you notice how the Get-ChildItem line is much shorter than Get-CimInstance? Not only you get faster execution using Get-ChildItem, but you also benefit from a cleaner and shorter code.
The next line of code after the $threshold variable will: The value of the $threshold the age in days that the file to be deleted must be. Then, the second line is where the threshold is specified. The first line defines the path for Get-ChildItem to search. In this example script below, files in C:\temp whose CreationTime value is older than the set threshold will be deleted. Now that you know the files to remove, you can create a script to only delete files that are older than a specific number of days – in this case, older than 14 days. The code below deletes the file C:\temp\random.txt. To delete just a single file, you only need to use the command below. The first example that would be most useful is the most basic – that is, deleting a single file. Related: Get-ChildItem: Listing Files, Registry, Certificates and Moreĭid you know that the Remove-Item cmdlet has an alias by the name of del? When working in PowerShell, using Remove-Item or del will run the same command. Using Remove-Item combined with the Get-ChildItem cmdlet to read files and folders and the powerful PowerShell pipeline can really make things a breeze. This cmdlet is the de facto standard for removing files with PowerShell. When you simply need to use PowerShell to delete a file, you’ll probably immediately learn about the Remove-Item cmdlet. Using the Remove-Item Cmdlet to Delete Files A script editor such as Visual Studio Code, Atom, or Notepad++.
Windows PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7.0.
A computer that is running Windows 10 or above.This article presents examples using PowerShell, and if you plan to follow along, you will need the following. Using PowerShell and WMI to Delete Files By Extension.Using PowerShell and WMI to Delete All Files in Folder.Using PowerShell and WMI to Delete a File.Using PowerShell to Match and Delete File Patterns.Using PowerShell to Delete Files Older Than x Days.Using PowerShell to Delete All Files Recursively.Using PowerShell to Delete All Files in Folder.Using the Remove-Item Cmdlet to Delete Files.