CMD to delete 'autorecovered' files from c:

Thanks. I also found this usebackq thing, but assumed it should be used in some programming language whatever.
I don't have any expertise on such thing, so I skipped it.

That said, I gave it a try on a test drive, to see if it would work.
Copied the xlsb files and folders to another location. launched the batch, but nothing happened.
I then tried just doing the 'del *autorecovered* .xlsb /s' thing, but got an 'Access is denied'-error.
That must be the reason for the fact that nothing happened.
Add /f parameter, that went fine. So: del *autorecovered* .xlsb /s /f
Also the subfolders were deleted. That went fine as well.

Now I already have a .bat file in the startup folder, that deletes all the
*.doc*, *.xls*, *.jpg, etc. as well as all the microsoft *.lnk files in Windows and Office \Recent folder.

Those are very simple lines like:
del C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\*.doc*
del C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\*.xls*
del C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\*.jpg
del C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\UnsavedFiles\*.asddel C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\*autorecovered*.xlsb /s /f
rem for /f "usebackq delims=" %%d in (`"dir /ad/b/s | sort /R"`) do rd "%%d"

The delete.bat with the usebackq line requires to be in the \Excel folder on C:

whereas 'my' deletefiles.bat is stored in the rootfolder (this is tricky of course)

Not sure how to solve this. Run a batch within a batch?

or, after the line with *.asd
add
cd\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel
del *autorecovered* .xlsb /s /f
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%d in (`"dir /ad/b/s | sort /R"`) do rd "%%d"


No idea, to be honest.

Thanks!

- - - Updated - - -


11-07-2021
Today I discovered that subfolders in : C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel are being updated (modified date stamp updated) after boot, even though nothing of Office was launched. Checked and found links (.lnk) to existing files and these links were updated for one reason or the other.
Those files are not 'autorecovered' but show the normal names.

Now, back to the question in my 2nd post above, I think I have solved it with a workaround.
copy XLSTART folder and Excel15.xlb to a temp folder

It definitely doesn't look nice (better: it looks horrible), but I figure I have it covered this way:

Code:

rem create a temp folder
d:
cd\
cd Downloads
md Exceltemp
rem copy files from \Excel on C: to temp folder
ROBOCOPY C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\ d:\DOWNLOADS\Exceltemp\XLSTART
COPY C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\EXCEL\Excel15.xlb d:\DOWNLOADS\Exceltemp
rem remove subfolders in \Excel on C:
c:
cd\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\
del * /s /q /f
rmdir /s /q C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\
rem restore files/folders from temp folder
d:
cd\
robocopy d:\downloads\exceltemp\XLSTART C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
copy d:\downloads\exceltemp\excel15.xlb C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\
rem delete temp folder
cd\downloads\exceltemp
del * /s /q /f
cd\
rmdir /s /q d:\downloads\exceltemp

tfwul said:

... how to delete the empty folders thereafter (IF at all possible...)

However, 1 folder (XLSTART) and 1 file (Excel15.xlb) may -not- be deleted.
they are updated each time at Excel launch.

Never try to delete the XLSTART folder. Excel needs it.

Denis