Lazy remove pesky files on Windows
There are some files on Windows which cannot be trivially removed, even if you are a full Administrator.
This PowerShell script makes sure that you remove them nonetheless.
Tested on Windows 10 x64.
Note: this script does not remove the files that are opened by a Windows process or if the file paths are more than 255 characters.
#ps1 # Run this as administrator # !!! Make sure you read this script ten times before executing it $dirToRemove = "C:\PeskyFolder" takeown.exe /F "${dirToRemove}" /R if ($LASTEXITCODE) { Write-Host "Failed to take ownership of ${dirToRemove}" exit 1 } Write-Host "Took ownership of ${dirToRemove}" icacls.exe "${dirToRemove}" /GRANT "Administrators:F" /T if ($LASTEXITCODE) { Write-Host "Failed to grant full admin rights to ${dirToRemove}" exit 1 } Write-Host "Granted full admin rights to ${dirToRemove}" $rmCmd = 'rmdir /s /q "' + $dirToRemove + '"' cmd /c "${rmCmd}" if ($LASTEXITCODE) { Write-Host "Failed to remove ${dirToRemove}" exit 1 } Write-Host "${dirToRemove} has been removed"
That's all, folks!
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