Sidestepping a frozen Windows Explorer

General

Busy computer users must have encountered this challenge many a time: here they are, staring at a folder that they know contains a huge number of files. The time has come to delete some – if not all – of them.

The usual way would be to open the Windows Explorer, go to the directory, select the files one needs no longer, and delete them. Straightforward, no?

No.

Way too often, the Windows Explorer will lock up on them, they’re in deep-freeze, so to speak.

Short of having Microsoft fixing the issue, can they delete those files without using Windows Explorer?

But yes, absolutely, yes, you can. And you can do it using the original Microsoft operating system that is much older and perfectly more reliable than Windows. The good, old MS-DOS has a command known as del (stands, you guessed it, for delete). Let’s say you’ve got a folder called C:homework. By now you’ve graduated from university (with honours, of course), and the 30,000 high school homework files are of no use to you.

So:

  1. Click Start and then click Run
  2. In the Run dialog box, enter cmd and press ENTER
  3. In the command prompt window, type cd and press ENTER
  4. In the command prompt window, type cd homework and press ENTER
  5. In the command prompt window, type del *.* and press ENTER
  6. The computer will ask, in considerable disbelief, whether you’re sure you want to delete all the files in the folder. If you are, type “y” (without the quotes) and press ENTER. Please note, this will not delete folders within the homework folder, see the next section on removing folders.

The quickest way to delete a folder and all files (and subfolders within) is to use a ‘switch’ with the command. For example, inside the C:homework folder there is a folder entitled ‘Grade_One’ and you want to delete it along with its contents. The following steps will let you accomplish this:

  1. Click Start and then click Run
  2. In the Run dialog box, enter cmd and press ENTER
  3. In the command prompt window, type cd and press ENTER
  4. In the command prompt window, type cd homework and press ENTER
  5. In the command prompt window, type rmdir Grade_One /s and press ENTER
  6. The computer will ask for confirmation, once again, in considerable disbelief, so, just press “y” (without the quotes) and press ENTER. The Grade_One folder and its contents are now deleted.

You can also decide you want to delete only some files (note not folders), say from the year you started saving your homework on your hard drive. You were always an organized person, still are, in fact, so, all of the important papers on the disappearance of dinosaurs from Grade 5 will have the digits 90 in them, to mark the year you wrote them.

  1. To delete only those, you will type del *90* and press ENTER.

If you decided to delete ALL of your 30,000 old homework assignments, be prepared to wait a few minutes (or longer). That will depend on how many files you had.

How will you know you’re done? The original command prompt will re-appear. That’s when you type “exit” (without quotation marks, of course), and you’ll be back, watching your Windows desktop.

Be sure to check out Windows Marketplace. Software ready to download now.