How can a program delete its own executable

user_150830 0
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Is there any way that a running process can delete its own executable?

For example, I make a console application (single exe) and after doing some tasks it somehow deletes the exe file.

I have to send a single file to someone. And I want it deleted after it does its intended task.

Is there anyway to do it in Windows

process file windows
9 Answers

While it's not possible to self delete a file when it's running it is possible to launch a detached cmd command from the file, then end the file operation before the command executes. So, if you want to delete a bat file you can just add at the end of the file the line: start cmd /c del %0 and the file would self destruct.

The start cmd will start a new cmd window (detached from your main process). The /c tells the windows to execute whatever comes after the /c in the line. Then the del will delete the file at the path it is given. The parameter $0 refers to the first command line argument which is usually the name and path to the file that was executed, which is what we want. (the $0 parameter is the path to the file, you want to pass that to the del command).

user_39936930

I solved this problem (using Visual Basic) by creating a batchfile that is executed while the process is still running, waits 1sec so the program can close itself and than deletes the program.

You might need to modify it for this will delete every thing in the same folder. After your task just call del() and it should work.

 Sub del()
    Dim file As System.IO.StreamWriter
    file = My.Computer.FileSystem.OpenTextFileWriter("del.bat", True)
    file.WriteLine("")
    file.WriteLine("timeout 1")
    file.WriteLine("echo Y | del *.*")
    file.Close()
    Process.Start("del.bat")
    Me.Close()
End Sub
user_66948050

I couldn't find any solutions anywhere else so I'll post my fix here.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    char* process_name = argv[0];
    char command[256] = "start /min cmd /c del ";
    strcat(command, process_name);

    printf("Attempting to delete self...\n");

    system(command);
    return 0;
}

Normally, trying to use system to call the command prompt to delete an executable would not work because the command prompt that is spawned is a child process that system executes and waits for a return status.

This method calls the system to start a command prompt process on its own thread.

The /min argument starts the process as "hidden".
The /c argument supplies arguments to the spawned command prompt.

I know this is an old thread, but I hopes those that come here in the future.

user_136051280
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