AUTOMATICALLY CLEAN OUT AND REMOVE EMPTY FILES AND FOLDERS

Free tool, called Delete Empty, that searches a specified path for empty folders and empty files (files of size zero) and deletes them, deepest paths first.The easiest way to do this is to shift-right-click on the folder containing the DelEmpty.exe file and select Open command window here from the popup menu.

A command line window opens directly to the folder containing the Delete Empty executable.

The format for the Delete Empty command is as follows:

DelEmpty.exe OPTIONS {PATH}

The following OPTIONS are available for use in the command:

-f delete files of size zero

-d delete empty directories

-v verbose mode

-c confirm mode (Shows what was deleted)

-s includes sub-directories

-l list what would be deleted (lowercase L – does not actually delete the empty             folders or empty files)

-y delete without (y/n) prompt

If you want Delete Empty to prompt you before deleting each empty directory and empty sub-directory, add the -y option to the command, as follows.

DelEmpty.exe -d -s -y c:\mydata

To delete all the empty files, in addition to the empty directories and empty sub-directories, add the -f option to the command.

DelEmpty.exe -d -s -f c:\mydata

If you want to check what directories and files would be deleted before actually deleting them, use the -l (lowercase L) option. For example, the following command will show you what directories, sub-directories and files will be deleted in the mydata directory.

DelEmpty.exe -d -s -f -l c:\mydata

You can also choose to have Delete Empty show you what has been deleted. To do this, add the -c option to the command.

DelEmpty.exe -d -s -f -c -y c:\mydata

To close the command window, type “exit” (without the quotes) on the command line and press Enter.

Download Delete Empty from http://www.intelliadmin.com/index.php/downloads/. The program is available in the Free Utilities section.

This handy free tool should help you keep your hard drive free of extraneous directories and files. However, be careful when using the Delete Empty tool. Some programs may need empty folders to run correctly, so be sure not to delete anything you are not sure of.