RM -rf equivalent for Windows?

Question

I need a way to recursively delete a folder and its children, is there a prebuilt tool for this, or do I need to write one?

DEL /S doesn't delete directories.

DELTREE was removed from Windows 2000+

Answer 1

http://www.computerhope.com/delhlp.htm

del /s

Answer 2

rmdir /s dirname

Answer 3

Try this command:

del /s foldername

Answer 4

RMDIR or RD:

rd /s /q

Answer 5

rmdir /S /Q %DIRNAME%

Answer 6

RMDIR [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path

RD [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path

• /S Removes all directories and files in the specified directory in addition to the directory itself. Used to remove a directory tree.

• /Q Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to remove a directory tree with /S

Answer 7

You can install cygwin, which has rm as well as ls etc.

Answer 8

There is also deltree if you're on an older version of windows.

I really like this site for finding commands: SS64: Del - Delete Files

Answer 9

admin:

takeown /r /f folder
cacls folder /c /G "ADMINNAME":F /T
rmdir /s folder

Works for anything including sys files

Answer 10

You can install GnuWin32 and use *nix commands natively on windows. I install this before I install anything else on a minty fresh copy of windows. :)