Gammadyne Corporation

DELS.EXE

DELS.EXE is a free Windows command line program that deletes a set of files from a folder and all of its subfolders.  Only one parameter is required:  a specification of the files to be deleted.  The specification can use the ? and * wildcards.  Multiple specifications can be separated with a space or semi-colon.

Usage

DELS [/age##] [/dif] [/nf] [/nologo] [/nr] [/ns] [/nw] [/q] [/rb] [/shred] [/test] filespec [/xf filespec] [/xd folder]


Where filespec specifies the file(s) to be deleted.

Switches:
/age##Only delete files that are at least this age, in days.
/difOn failure, delete the file during the next reboot.  May require admin rights.
/nfDon't list each file as it is deleted.
/nologoDon't display the program banner.
/nrDon't recursively enter subfolders.
/nsDon't display the operation summary.
/nwDon't report warnings in the file specification.
/qSuppress all output.
/shredShred the file so that it cannot be recovered.  Complies with NIST SP-800-88 guidelines.
/rbPut files in Recycle Bin instead of permanently deleting.
/testTest only - no deleting.
/xdExclude each folder that follows this switch.
/xfExclude each file that follows this switch.

Example

For example, Gammadyne uses this to delete all of our object compiler intermediate files:

dels /nf /age7 f:\projects\*.obj;*.sbr;*.res;*.bsc;*.pch;*.ncb


Sample Output:

DELS.EXE 4.1 - Recursive File Deletion Utility - www.Gammadyne.com
Copyright (C) 2001-2024 by Greg Wittmeyer - All Rights Reserved

Deleting F:\PROJECTS\AutoTweak\AutoTweak.ncb : ok
Deleting F:\PROJECTS\Scratchboard\Scratchboard.ncb : ok
Deleting F:\PROJECTS\Gammadyne Mailer\Gammadyne Mailer.ncb : FAILED!
Deleting F:\PROJECTS\Console\Console.ncb : ok
Deleting F:\PROJECTS\All\All.ncb : ok
Deleting F:\PROJECTS\Eclient\Eclient.ncb : only 3 days old

4 files deleted successfully
1 files could not be deleted
1 files were not old enough
Total size of file specification: 34,741,983 bytes


Notes

  • We are not responsible for damage caused by the use of this program, or any other program, even if it contains bugs.  This is a powerful program with the ability to seriously screw up your computer.
  • You may press the Escape key to abort the operation once it has started.
  • When a file specification contains an absolute path, all subsequent file specifications will be relative to that path (but only when using a semi-colon separator).  Note that the example above depends on this.
  • Deleted files are not moved to the Recycle Bin, they are permanently deleted, unless you specify the /rb switch.  For a good undelete utility, we recommend Back2Life.

Download

Click the button below to download version 4.1 of DELS.EXE, released March 14th, 2024.

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