Clean Empty Folders with Command Prompt

As your computer gets older, it’s hard disk is cluttered with more and more empty folders. These empty folders may look harmless at first sight, but there are plenty of reasons why you should consider deleting them.

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Too many empty folders can slow down your computer

One of the reasons why you should consider deleting empty folders is to speed up your system performance. Empty folders can adversely affect your computer’s performance over the long term.

Your computer builds a database of thumbnails for each file and folder stored on the hard disk. In technical terms, this database is known as the thumbnail cache. It helps the computer load things faster. It quickly displays a glimpse of a file or folder contents without requiring you to open it. Imagine, you’re searching for a specific image in a folder filled with hundreds of other files. A thumbnail will help you quickly locate it without needing to open all the files.

The problem is that as the number of folders/ files increases, the thumbnail cache grows in size. It takes a lot of time to load the data and preview the contents. Ultimately, it slows down your computer.

Sure, you can clean the thumbnail cache using the Folder Options in Windows. Nonetheless, Windows will rebuild it again and you’ll start encountering the same problem at some point of time.

Why do I have plenty of empty folders?

The answer largely depends on how you use your computer. There can be thousands of millions of files on a user’s PC. Some people don’t find enough time to organize the stuff stored on their computer, while others simply don’t know where to start with. Non-tech savvy users and old aged people are mostly unaware about scripting, and hence they don’t have adequate skills to automate the file organization tasks.

Apart from the user, software applications are to be blamed as well. The more software programs you have, the more folders they create to store user-specific data (not to be confused with Program Files).

Let’s look at a few examples. Some image editors create new folders to store your edited images. Some video editing and video conversion utilities create new folders to store the original project files as well as the processed videos. Some file downloading software create separate folders to store downloaded documents, images, videos and archives. There are plenty of other examples.

If you don’t use these programs anymore or if you’ve uninstalled them, chances are that these folders are still sitting there with no content inside them.

How to Delete Empty Folders?

There are mainly two ways to delete empty folders.

Method 1: Create a Batch File to Delete Empty Folders using Command Prompt (Only for advanced users)

You can use a Batch (.bat) file to automatically delete empty folders using Command Prompt. Don’t forget, Command Prompt is a very powerful tool. Use it with extreme caution, especially while dealing with the files, folders, or drives on your hard disk. Always take a recent backup of your data on an external media (such as a USB stick or an external HDD) and be sure to disconnect the external device after creating the backup. You can restore this backup if something goes wrong.

Steps

1. 1. Click the Start button, type Notepad and open it from the Search Results.

1. 1. Copy the following code and paste it in the Notepad file:
      @echo WARNING!!! You are about to recursively delete all the empty directories in the folder (%~dp0) that contains this Batch file. This action CANNOT be undone! This Batch file will also recursively delete all the hidden Desktop.ini files (if exists) without which this procedure cannot be performed. Click the Close [X] button to cancel and exit this window, or press any key to proceed and start deleting now.
      @pause

      @echo Checking for Desktop.ini files (1/2)…

      @del /s /q /f /a “.\desktop.ini”

      @echo Deleting Desktop.ini files finished…

      @echo Deleting empty directories (2/2)…

      @for /f “usebackq delims=” %%d in (`”dir /ad/b/s | sort /R”`) do rd “%%d”

      @echo Deleting empty folders finished…

      @echo The task has been successfully completed! Please press any key to exit the window.

      @pause

1. Click on the File menu, and select Save As.
2. Specify a name for your file: AutoDelete.bat.
3. Set the File Type to All Files.
4. Save the Batch file in the directory that you want to scan for empty folders. For example, H:\TestFolder
5. Double-click the AutoDelete.bat file to execute the script, and follow the instructions on your screen.

How does this Batch file work?

This batch file will make sure that your directories are truly empty. This is because the batch file will NOT be able to delete directories that contain hidden files or hidden system files. If any system-stored hidden files are found (for example, Desktop.ini), the Batch file will automatically delete them prior to deleting any empty directories. Don’t be surprised if you see any errors that no Desktop.ini file was found.

You can also do this job manually. You can search through your directories to look for the desktop.ini file. If it exists, you can remove it before executing the batch file.

After removing desktop.ini, the Batch file will automatically delete any empty folders found in your directory. After successful completion, you may press any key to exit the Command Prompt window.

Method 2: Automatically Delete Empty Folders Using Clone Files Checker (Recommended)

Clone Files Checker is a duplicate file finder app. It hashes the contents of your files to identify duplicates. You can use CFC to find different types of duplicate files including documents, images, music, videos and archives. Once the duplicates are identified, CFC groups them based on the common hash and lets you select and fix them.

Clone Files Checker is a feature-rich application with several add-on features. It allows you to search for empty folders and delete them automatically in a few seconds. You don’t need to create any batch file or learn about scripting/ programming. You can delete empty directories with a nice, user-friendly interface and with NO RISK. You do not have to worry about losing crucial data, causing harm to the operating system, or other potential issues that could arise with improper usage of Command Prompt.

The process is simple and straightforward:

1. 1. Download and install Clone Files Checker.

1. 1. Launch the software and click on the link Remove Empty Folders.

1. 1. In the new dialog that opens, click on Add Path.

1. 1. Select the desired directory that contains empty folders you want to delete. You can add as many directories as you wish.

1. Once you’re done, simply click the Delete Empty Folders button to proceed with the deletion.