Windows remove directory symlink

Or perhaps after the mushrooms Show 9 more comments. It is correct. I do it all the time. Just tested it again right now. This just worked for me as well. This does NOT delete the linked folder. Show 1 more comment. George V. Reilly George V. Reilly 5 5 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges. Warning: "del" will delete the file and not just the link.

Warning from Tristan is not correct, this answer is accurate. Tested on windows 7. In Windows 7 SP1 bit , a symbolic link that points to either a file e. If not empty, the target directory cannot even be deleted using the command DEL junction at the command prompt.

Tested today. On Windows Server , this removed the directory contents that my symlink was pointed to You should warn people not to rmdir links from Powershell!

That blog confuses the meaning of "Target", which is the actual directory the link points to, and which folks generally wish to avoid deleting whilst removing the link. To add to the confusion, del is also an alias to Remove-Item in PowerShell.

So, while del in cmd recursively deletes files, del in PowerShell only removes the link. This is a clever precaution. At least classic Shortcuts Not tested though. I did this just in case. After I renamed the target folder, the symbolink link failed when I tried to access it, so I could delete it without worrying.

Daisetsu Daisetsu 5, 4 4 gold badges 31 31 silver badges 44 44 bronze badges. Please check out this forum: superuser. If you found that I was helpful, i'd appreciate if you can state that my answers were helpful using the arrow.

Noticed you are new. Welcome to the community and best of luck — Zain. Show 6 more comments. Reg Edit Reg Edit 5, 1 1 gold badge 31 31 silver badges 41 41 bronze badges. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Mathias R. Jessen Mathias R. Jessen k 8 8 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Delete still works as expected: Removing the SymbolicLink and leaving the target folder intact.

Tested PS6 win10 — Joe Johnston. Lance U. Matthews Lance U. Matthews This was the most successful way to accomplish what needed to happen. Answered by:. Archived Forums. Windows 10 General. Sign in to vote. I've created a symbolic link to a directory with New-Item -Path. Friday, October 12, AM. Hi, According to my know, using del command line will delete all of the files in the target directory the directory that the link points to , rather than just the link.

So try to use command line "rmdir path" to achieve your desire. Bests, Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help. Monday, October 15, AM.