Batch file to delete files older than N days

Enjoy:

forfiles -p "C:\what\ever" -s -m *.* -d <number of days> -c "cmd /c del @path"

See forfiles documentation for more details.

For more goodies, refer to An A-Z Index of the Windows XP command line.

If you don't have forfiles installed on your machine, copy it from any Windows Server 2003 to your Windows XP machine at %WinDir%\system32\. This is possible since the EXE is fully compatible between Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Later versions of Windows and Windows Server have it installed by default.

For Windows 7 and newer (including Windows 10):

The syntax has changed a little. Therefore the updated command is:

forfiles /p "C:\what\ever" /s /m *.* /D -<number of days> /C "cmd /c del @path"

My command is

forfiles -p "d:\logs" -s -m*.log -d-15 -c"cmd /c del @PATH\@FILE" 

@PATH - is just path in my case, so I had to use @PATH\@FILE

also forfiles /? not working for me too, but forfiles (without "?") worked fine.

And the only question I have: how to add multiple mask (for example ".log|.bak")?

All this regarding forfiles.exe that I downloaded here (on win XP)

But if you are using Windows server forfiles.exe should be already there and it is differs from ftp version. That is why I should modify command.

For Windows Server 2003 I'm using this command:

forfiles -p "d:\Backup" -s -m *.log -d -15 -c "cmd /c del @PATH"

Copy this code and save it as DelOldFiles.vbs.

USAGE IN CMD : cscript //nologo DelOldFiles.vbs 15

15 means to delete files older than 15 days in past.

  'copy from here
    Function DeleteOlderFiles(whichfolder)
       Dim fso, f, f1, fc, n, ThresholdDate
       Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
       Set f = fso.GetFolder(whichfolder)
       Set fc = f.Files
       Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments
       n = 0
       If objArgs.Count=0 Then
           howmuchdaysinpast = 0
       Else
           howmuchdaysinpast = -objArgs(0)
       End If
       ThresholdDate = DateAdd("d", howmuchdaysinpast, Date)   
       For Each f1 in fc
     If f1.DateLastModified<ThresholdDate Then
        Wscript.StdOut.WriteLine f1
        f1.Delete
        n = n + 1    
     End If
       Next
       Wscript.StdOut.WriteLine "Deleted " & n & " file(s)."
    End Function

    If Not WScript.FullName = WScript.Path & "\cscript.exe" Then
      WScript.Echo "USAGE ONLY IN COMMAND PROMPT: cscript DelOldFiles.vbs 15" & vbCrLf & "15 means to delete files older than 15 days in past."
      WScript.Quit 0   
    End If

    DeleteOlderFiles(".")
 'to here

Delete all Files older than 3 days

forfiles -p "C:\folder" -m *.* -d -3 -c "cmd  /c del /q @path"

Delete Directories older than 3 days

forfiles -p "C:\folder" -d -3 -c "cmd  /c IF @isdir == TRUE rd /S /Q @path"

You might be able to pull this off. You can take a look at this question, for a simpler example. The complexity comes, when you start comparing the dates. It may be easy to tell if the date is greater or not, but there are many situations to consider if you need to actually get the difference between two dates.

In other words - don't try to invent this, unless you really can't use the third party tools.

More flexible way is to use FileTimeFilterJS.bat:

@echo off

::::::::::::::::::::::
set "_DIR=C:\Users\npocmaka\Downloads"
set "_DAYS=-5"
::::::::::::::::::::::

for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%# in ('FileTimeFilterJS.bat  "%_DIR%" -dd %_DAYS%') do (
    echo deleting  "%%~f#"
    echo del /q /f "%%~f#"
)

The script will allow you to use measurements like days, minutes ,seconds or hours. To choose weather to filter the files by time of creation, access or modification To list files before or after a certain date (or between two dates) To choose if to show files or dirs (or both) To be recursive or not