Hi guys and gals,
As to be expected I use CCleaner to keep my pc clean, but I also have some folders that I don't want to clean out as often as I normally run Ccleaner.
So I was thinking of a batch file to clean out those folders, where I can put a link to in rocketdock.
But how do I write a batchfile like that?
One of the folders is E:\Chat
I want the visible content erased, but the desktop.ini file shouldn't be touched.
Can someone give me a hand with this? :D
Should be easy...
First you need to change into the folder.
E:
CD \CHAT
Next PROTECT desktop.ini
ATTRIB DESKTOP.INI +R +S +H
Then delete the contents of the folder
DEL *.*
(I've not tried this so you might first want to make a copy of the folder to try, and you might need to send a 'Y' to the DEL command, I forget?)
Lastly unhide DESKTOP.INI
ATTRIB DESKTOP.INI -R -H -S
(some of those attributes might be set already, check with the plain ATTRIB command).
That should do it.
Irv S.
Now that looks promissing :)
Though not quite sure now how to actually write this thing ...
And why hide / unhide desktop.ini? It is already hidden and system. I can set it permanently to read only if needed.
I've created a copy on my D drive for testing. Will give it a try ...
Edit: nope, my try at writing this is no good. Nothing happens. <LOL>
Could you guide me in baby steps on writing this? Please :)))
Irv's option makes the desktop.ini file visible after running, which is not supposed to happen.
G41M's option works perfectly, but I now understand what went wrong yesterday.
It doesn't erase files from subfolders and I only had a folder with files in it - so everything stayed in place.
What do I need to add to erase subfolders too?
Easy, CD into the sub-folders and issue the DEL *.* OR use the /S parameter on the DEL command to also delete the files in the sub-folders. Note, sometimes this WILL fail. Files might be in use or protected.
DESKTOP.INI should only have the ATTRIBUTES reset to what they were when you started. Just open a COMMAND prompt and change into CHAT and issue ATTRIB. It will show you the attributes for the various files. Probably doesn't need the -H on the last command (or the +H on the first) and DESKTOP.INI was probably hidden already (or the +S and -S as it might have been marked as a SYSTEM file as well).
If sub-folder contents are NOT deleted, you'll need to change into each and issue the DEL *.* command and if none are locked or open they will be deleted. You will STILL be left with the sub-folders though. To delete these, you must be on the (sub-)folder above the one to be deleted and issue RD sub-foldername.
Post a DIR /S of what you want to handle and an ATTRIB as well. Will make it easier to be sure we get it right.
Irv S.
Inside the Chat folder there is a subfolder with my emailaddress that's used for the chat.
And inside that subfolder are all kinds of things connected to the conversation - logfiles, history files, shared files. They mostly are in subfolders that vary in name.
To avoid my iconsettings to be deleted I've already added to CD \Chat 'CD mymail@mailserver.com' and then added /S to the DEL command.
Now my main subfolder get's emptied, while desktop.ini in E:\Chat is left alone.
But I end up with a lot of empty subfolders, which I'd also like to have deleted.
So this is what I have now (I have of course changed my real email for mymail@mailserver.com :D) :
@ECHO OFF
E:
CD \CHAT
CD \mymail@mailserver.com
DEL /S /Q *.*
EXIT
RD command will remove folders...
==================
C:\Users\Irv>rd /?
Removes (deletes) a directory.
RMDIR [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path
RD [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path
/S Removes all directories and files in the specified directory
in addition to the directory itself. Used to remove a directory
tree.
/Q Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to remove a directory tree with /S
=================
RD and RMDIR are the same, synonym for each other.
So rather than :
============
CD \mymail@mailserver.com
DEL /S /Q *.*
=============
You can just use
===============
RD \mymail@mailserver.com /Q /S
===============
Irv S.
Ha Irv,
I just found this link which gave me the same idea :)
This is what I have now and it seems to work :)))
@ECHO OFF
E:
CD \CHAT
RD /S /Q mymail@mailserver.com
EXIT
Does that look alright? (I don't want to be deleting mymail@mailserver.com folders from any other place <LOL>)
Several good solutions here. pin bat file to start menu windows 7
@ Irv - I can put it in the start menu (all programs part), but I can't 'pin' it to the startmenu.
Found a way around it though - I renamed the extension to exe <LOL>.
Still runs (doesn't work on all bat files, but this one is simple enough for it still to work) and now I can pin it :)
@ Xhi - nice try, but uhmmm, I'm on Vista ;)))
@ Xhi - did have another look and used the second method here. Silly thing is that the shortcut is bigger than the actual file! <LOL>
Edit: Nope, that doesn't work. A cmd window flashes by but it doesn't do anything.
Btw. all the options mentioned are about pinning to the taskbar.
I don't want to pin to the taskbar, I want to pin it to the startmenu.
Pretty annoying ...
