Deleting From DOS
 

Can someone please provide me a quick primer (or link) on how to delete files from the DOS prompt in XP? Much appreciated. Thanks

Start/run/cmd

Use the cd command to change directories to get to where the file(s) are.

then type del <filename> and press enter



Edited due to the fact the < and &gt info was parsed out originally by vbulletin.

um, you may want to specifiy

del [filename]

Other switches:
del *.* -delete everything
del *.[file extension] -del all files of that extension

del /? [help menu]

If you really want to delete everything
attrib -H -S -R *.*
del *.*

The first command removes the hidden, system and readonly "flags" from every file in the directory. Hidden system and readonly files won't be deleted by "del *.*". Hidden, system and readonly files are not exactly rare, but they aren't exactly common, so for the most part you can ignore this advice, unless del *.* decides to silently not work... =)

I apologize. When I wrote that I needed a primer I should have said that I am a complete and utter moron who knows nothing of DOS and needs to be handheld through the most simple computing maneuver. So, I hit Start, Run, enter cmd and push enter. Next: I get a little black window and a prompt which says C:\Documents And Settings. So I enter del DDG_daily_1583_a.exe (the name of the file I want to delete) and push enter. Unfortunately, I get this response: Could Not Find C:\Documents And Settings\DDG_daily_1583_a.exe. What did I do wrong? Thanks for any help you can shade on this dilemna? Much appreciated.

DDG_daily_1583_a.exe is not in the c:\Documents And Settings directory.

I have no idea what directory it is in, so I can't tell you exactly how to accomplish your goal. Let's say it is in c:\newbie\to\dos\

type this after you get the "little black box":

cd\newbie\to\dos
del DDG_daily_1583_a.exe


if you do not know which directory it is in, find it this way:

cd\
dir/w/a/s/p DDG_daily_1583_a.exe

(the switches tell it to list the returned files in wide format, which makes it easier to see which file is in which folder, to list ALL files, even hidden ones, to search through every subdirectory beyond your current directory (which is the root directory since you first said cd\) and to pause at each page.)

This will return every file on that hard drive that is named DDG_daily_1583_a.exe

then look at the "directory of" line. If the line, for example, says "Directory of c:\total\dos\newbie" then type:

cd\total\dos\newbie
del DDG_daily_1583_a.exe

(edit) man, I miss dos. Anyone else pissed that they got rid of nice shortcuts in win2k? You can't type "dir .exe" anymore - you HAVE to type "dir *.exe" Sucks.