POWERSHELL – DELETE OLD FILES

Overview

We can delete files older than X days. We can create a scheduled task to run the PowerShell script on a schedule.

List Files To Delete

This code uses the Get-ChildItem and Where-Object cmdlets to search for all files in a specified directory and its subdirectories that are not directories and were last modified less than 8 days ago. The results are returned as a list of file objects. This could be useful for finding and deleting old files, archiving files, or identifying files that have not been accessed in a certain period of time.

The (Get-Date).AddDays(-8) command will list files older than 8 days. This way we can ensure that the correct files are being included.

!$_.PSIsContainer will keep the folder structure. This means it will not list/delete any folders. The only thing that will be listed/deleted are files.

$_.Lastwritetime looks at the date modified to determine the date that will be compared. If we want to look at the creation date instead, use $_.CreationTime.

The Delete

The Get-ChildItem cmdlet is used to retrieve a list of files and directories in the specified path. In this case, the -Path parameter specifies the path to the “C:\SomePath\Folder” directory, and the -Recurse parameter tells the cmdlet to search all subdirectories recursively. The -Force parameter is used to include hidden and system files in the list.

The results of the Get-ChildItem cmdlet are piped (|) to the Where-Object cmdlet, which filters the list based on the specified criteria. The !$.PSIsContainer condition specifies that only files (not directories) should be included in the list, and the $.Lastwritetime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-8) condition specifies that only files with a LastWriteTime that is less than 8 days old should be included.

The filtered list of files is then piped to the Remove-Item cmdlet, which deletes the files from the file system. The -Force parameter is used to suppress any confirmation prompts and forcibly delete the files.

Overall, this code is searching for all files in the “C:\SomePath\Folder” directory and all its subdirectories that are not directories and were last modified less than 8 days ago, and then deleting those files from the file system.

This code could be useful for regularly cleaning up old files that are no longer needed, or for automatically deleting files that have not been modified in a certain period of time. It could also be useful for identifying and deleting files that have not been accessed in a certain period of time, as the LastWriteTime property is updated when a file is accessed, even if the file’s contents are not modified.

It is important to use caution when using this code, as deleted files cannot be recovered unless they have been previously backed up. It is a good idea to test the code on a small subset of files before running it on a large number of files to ensure that it is functioning as expected.