How To Find Empty Folders In Windows 7
Over time your Windows installation gets cluttered up with more and more information. While many of the files are important for the running of the organisation, some are useless and get left behind by software that has been uninstalled. The files and folders are therefore redundant simply still on the system. Every bit more than and more is added to the operating system, it begins to slow down which is partly why an quondam install runs slower than a newer install.
Although folders by themselves don't really cause any performance issues or take upward any infinite, having thousands of folders spread across your organisation that don't incorporate any files tin can become a bit of a pain. For the most role, they are of no practical utilize and just go in the way, especially while using Windows File Explorer. Information technology's frustrating to drill down through folders to find what'south in them only to notice they are completely empty and are serving no purpose.
Here nosotros list 7 Windows based tools that tin discover and delete empty folders from your organization. While many empty folders are of no use and can be safely deleted, others are required by software or Windows itself. It is never recommended to just mass delete all empty folders from your arrangement drive and some feel is required to determine what is safety to remove and what isn't. Don't panic if you've made the wrong decision in deleting an important folder considering there are free recovery software that y'all tin apply to restore back the deleted folder.
Delete Empty Folders Using a Third Party Programme
Using a separate tool to delete a number of empty folders is going to exist much faster and easier than trying to exercise it yourself manually. Hither are some tools to wait at.
i. Remove Empty Directories
Remove Empty Directories is probably the almost well known empty binder deleting tool, but similar many others, it hasn't been updated in several years. The last update for this program was 2011. It still works keen though, has enough functions for most users and manages to squeeze everything into a portable executable nether 200KB in size.
Later selecting and scanning the base folder or drive, the view will be populated with a tree view containing different colored text and icons. The icon list on the right volition tell you lot if the folders are truly empty, contain trash files and are hidden, locked or can't exist read. Names in red are automatically marked for deletion. Right click on a red empty binder and select "Protect once" to ignore it for this session or "Add to ignore list" to permanently ignore the folder in future.
In the the Settings tab you tin can choose to delete to the Recycle bin or directly, skip predefined folders (7 are already added), add together or remove what are classed as trash files (3 are pre entered), add a right click carte du jour entry to Explorer, and set a few advanced options like recursive depth. Right click and run the programme as ambassador to enter Admin fashion and allow deleting of protected folders.
Download Remove Empty Directories
2. EmptyFolderNuker
EmptyFolderNuker is probably the easiest GUI based empty folder remover hither. It's a bit old dating from 2007, and the official website is no longer there but the tool notwithstanding works as intended, even in Windows 10. The programme is also a unmarried portable executable.
Browse for the folder or drive yous desire to check, so press the Observe push button. Make certain the two boxes are checked to scan the path recursively and treat folders as empty if they contain only empty folders. The Shell Integration box is useful and places a right click "Find empty folders" entry when you right click on a binder. The plan will then open with the folder you clicked on as the base path.
You need to be slightly careful at the results window as all empty folders are pre-checked for deletion. It's recommended to press Uncheck All and choose the folders selectively or get through the list and make sure to uncheck whatever folders you want to exit lone. Later you press Delete, a UAC prompt will pop up if any folders require administrator privileges to remove.
Download Empty Binder Nuker
iii. Fast Empty Binder Finder
Like Empty Folder Nuker, this tool is quite old and its official website is no longer around. Fast Empty Folder Finder is a flake newer though and from 2011. The .Internet Framework v2 is required and then Windows 8 and 10 users will need to have the .Cyberspace iii.5 optional characteristic installed. Besides the .NET requirement, Fast Empty Folder Finder is portable.
When you press the Scan Locations button to add a folder, several different base of operations folders can be added at one time. This is useful and can stop the program scanning thousands of folders yous are not interested in. Later on pressing Scan Now! select all the empty folders you lot want to remove using left click, Shift+click or Ctrl+click or utilise the List > Check menu options. Checked files can exist deleted permanently or to the Recycle bin for a chip of added safety.
Although the lower pane Explorer window might be useful to check if a folder is actually empty, information technology is by and large unneeded and can be turned off from the View carte. Empty folder lists can be exported to a text file for after use. 1 result is Fast Empty Binder Finder doesn't delete a folder if it simply contains empty folders. If you accept a path of foldera\folderb and both folders contain no files, only folderb will exist deleted.
Download Fast Empty Folder Finder
iv. 4dots Empty Binder Cleaner
Empty Folder Cleaner by 4dots Software has both installer and portable versions available. The only major difference between the two is the installed version has the pick to add a right click context carte du jour entry and then y'all can delete empty folders from the folder you right click on.
After selecting a drive or binder to scan and scanning it, yous then take the opportunity to delete completely empty folders or those that contain what are considered "junk" files. By default, junk files are desktop.ini, thumbs.db and .tmp files although you can add to or edit this list in the program'due south options. Press either the green or blue buttons to select all empty or junk folders or selectively check the boxes for individual folders.
You tin can as well add together folders to ignore (five organization folders are already included), folders and files to protect from deletion, and keep backups of the deleted folders for afterwards restoration. To enable the backup choice get to Tools > Options and select Proceed Backups. The program will ask for authoritative privileges after you press the delete push button if administrator protected folders are listed for deletion.
Download 4dots Empty Folder Cleaner
Other potentially useful empty folder deleting programs nosotros tried include Empty Folders Finder (part of Glary Utilities), JoseDelEmpty, Vanity Remover, Empty Folder Finder and DelEmpty (GUI based).
Note: Some tools were ineffective in finding the real number of empty folders on our arrangement. The tools above found thousands but Avant-garde SystemCare Free merely found 23 empty folders and Puran Delete Empty Folders found just seven. You lot are welcome to try these programs but we found they were nowhere near thorough enough to be considered truly useful.
Delete Empty Folders From the Command Line or Scripts
Letting a dedicated program find and delete empty folders is the best option for users of all skill levels. Advanced users might also want some extra options like being able to delete empty folders from the control line or batch scripts. Here are a few ways to exercise that using tertiary party control line and built in Windows utilities.
5. DelEmpty (by Intelliadmin)
There is another tool chosen DelEmpty that has a GUI only this 1 is made solely for the command line. The main arguments to remove folders and subfolders from a given path are:
delempty -S -D [-Y] [-Fifty] pathtofolder
The -D statement is required and tells the tool to delete empty folders, the -S will optionally include sub-folders. Ii other useful arguments are -Y which requires confirmation to delete each folder and -Fifty lists the folders to be deleted without deleting anything. This is useful if y'all desire to redirect the folder list to a text file. DelEmpty is likewise able to delete zero byte files by including -F, run the tool without arguments for a list.
Download Intelliadmin DelEmpty
6. RmEmpty
For complete ease of utilise while deleting empty folders from the command line, this sometime tool from around the year 2000 is about every bit simple as it gets.
RmEmpty pathtofolder [pathtofolder2]
Supply at to the lowest degree one folder as an argument and RmEmpty volition search the path recursively and delete empty folders. Multiple path arguments tin can be included and then you lot tin delete from several different base folders at once.
Download RmEmpty
vii. Windows RoboCopy Command
In that location are several unlike ways in which yous tin can delete empty folders using built in Windows commands, nigh crave the apply of a For loop. The Robocopy (Robust File Copy) tool is much easier and a simple trick forces information technology to remove all empty folders in the given path. Robocopy is available as standard in Windows Vista and above.
Robocopy pathtofolder samepathtofolder /Due south /Move
Instead of supplying a unlike source and destination folder you simply use the aforementioned for both. The addition of /Move tries to move the files from and to the same location, so Robocopy skips them. The extra /S argument forces Robocopy to also move subfolders but not empty folders. Only the empty folders are processed and deleted while everything else is skipped considering information technology already exists. This leaves all files and non empty folders completely intact.
Note: These tools demand to exist run in an authoritative Command Prompt or the script needs running every bit ambassador for all folders to be candy on the C bulldoze. Otherwise merely those empty folders inside the electric current user's folder will be deleted and those outside (such as in Program Files) volition receive an access denied error message.
Source: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-removing-empty-directories-from-windows/
Posted by: dickensevervall.blogspot.com
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