Command Prompt to delete to recycle bin

mkr10001 · 21 Nov 2018

I've recently made some bat scripts to do some stuff with zip files, extract and sort/rename etc blah blah blah not important. As part of the cleanup I have it delete the zip file once its extracted however something went wrong the other day and it turns out "del file.zip" just deletes it completely. Is there a way to send to recycle bin via command prompt so i can retrieve the file if something goes wrong??

Bree · 21 Nov 2018

Not in a command prompt, though it should be possible in a PowerShell script like this one:
Technet forum | How can I delete "to recycle bin" in powershell instead of remove item ?

There are third-party utilities that you could use, CmdUtils includes a recycle.exe that will do the job. Use recycle -f to skip the confirmation dialog. It's been around for years, but still works in W10.
MaDdoG product: CmdUtils

If you want to stick to the standard Microsoft commands, as an alternative to deleting the files you could move them to another folder you've already created for that purpose, for example:

MOVE /Y *.* C:\My_Bin

mkr10001 · 23 Nov 2018

Cheers, I think I'll give recycle a go!

Try3 · 23 Nov 2018

mkr,

I have just posted in the TechNet thread that @Bree gave you a link to.

I have posted suitable cmd lines to add to your batch files in order to call a common PS1 file to handle the deletion stage. The deleted files go to the Recycle bin as you wanted and they can be 'restored' [undeleted] from there in the normal manner if required.
- Note that I have only written this for file deletions rather than folder deletions.
- You will see that my PS1 file lives in a folder called C:\Tools, as do all my own batch, vbs & PS1 scripts. I created that folder then modified its permissions so that only Administrators can change its contents [as a guard against mistakes & malware].

If you are going to use my suggested code for file deletions from your batch files and have any queries then you can just post back here instead of in TechNet.

Denis

Try3 · 24 Nov 2018

mkr,

I tidied up the code a bit.

Where, in your batch file, you currently have a delete command you should replace it with a call to the PS1 file followed by a list of the condemned files, using their full paths. [I have left two sample file paths in there but you need to substitute your own.]

Code:

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File "C:\Tools\DeleteToRecycleBin.ps1"  "D:\Documents\IS\Scripting\PowerShell\Notes\delete\DeleteToRecycleBin - TechNet - Copy.pdf" "D:\Documents\IS\Scripting\PowerShell\Notes\delete\DeleteToRecycleBin - TechNet - Copy (2).pdf"

The PS1 file is C:\Tools\DeleteToRecycleBin.ps1. You can just create it as a text file, enter the code given, save it then rename it with the extension ps1.

Code:

 ForEach ($PassedArg in $args) {
    $paths = Get-ChildItem -Path "$PassedArg"
    $shell = New-Object-ComObject 'Shell.Application'
        ForEach ($path in $paths)
        {
        $shell.NameSpace(0).ParseName($path.FullName).InvokeVerb('delete')
        }
}

##### Derived from code posted by TechNet forum user Albert Ling  #####

As I mentioned before, I created the folder C:\Tools for all my own scripts.

Denis

mkr10001 · 24 Nov 2018

Thanks, I'd much prefer that than installing extra stuff. Presumably I can wildcard files in that command?

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File "C:\Tools\DeleteToRecycleBin.ps1" "D:\Documents\IS\Scripting\PowerShell\Notes\delete\*.pdf

Edit: Just tried it and got this message

C:\mkr\tools>powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File "C:\mkr\tools\recycle.ps1" "C:\Users\Michael\Videos\*.rar"

New-Object-ComObject : The term 'New-Object-ComObject' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script

file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct

and try again.

At C:\mkr\tools\recycle.ps1:3 char:14

+ $shell = New-Object-ComObject 'Shell.Application'

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (New-Object-ComObject:String) [], CommandNotFoundException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException





You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression.

At C:\mkr\tools\recycle.ps1:6 char:9

+ $shell.NameSpace(0).ParseName($path.FullName).InvokeVerb('del ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvokeMethodOnNull

Try3 · 24 Nov 2018

In addition to the limitation you have just discovered, it cannot be used to delete folders.

The tool can only be used to delete files for which full paths-names are specified.

Denis