Delete Empty Folders

  

Delete Empty Folders in Windows without any Extra Programs

  
You don't need a program [to delete empty folders in windows]; you can do this at the command prompt.  Open a command prompt window and navigate to the root folder of the drive in question.  Enter this command:

DIR /AD/B/S | SORT /R > EMPTIES.BAT

The file EMPTIES.BAT now contains a list of all folders on your hard drive in reverse order.  Use Word or another editor to put the filenames in quotes and add the prefix RD (with a space after RD) to every line in the file.  In Word, you can do this easily by using Find and Replace to search for ^p (which represents the paragraph mark) and replace it with "^pRD " (quote, p, R, D, space quote), then hand-correct the first and last lines of the file as necessary.  Save the modified EMPTIES .BAT file and exit your editor.  Then simply launch the batch file.  It will attempt the RD (remove directory) command on each folder, but the command will fail for any folder that is not empty.

How does it work? For the DIR command, the switch /AD means select files whose attributes include the Directory attribute (in other words, folders).  The /B switch means give a "bare" listing—just the filename—and /S means look in subfolders, too (which, incidentally, modifies /B, so it shows the full pathname).  The output is piped (|) as input to the SORT command.  Not surprisingly, the switch /R means sort in reverse.  Finally, the output of SORT is redirected (>) into the file EMPTIES.BAT. Because we're sorting in reverse, every folder's subfolders precede it in the list. If they are empty, then by the time the parent folder is processed, it too will be empty.  You'd be surprised at what you can do with simple commands!

Originally appeared in PC Magazine.