How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt

This wikiHow teaches you how to use the Windows command prompt to create and delete files and folders (also known as directories). The files you create at the prompt can be modified and managed with Windows apps, including File Manager and...

Method 1 of 4:

Creating a Folder

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    Open the Command Prompt. Here are two quick ways to do so:
    1. Right-click the Start menu and select Command Prompt.
    2. Press ⊞ Win+S to open the search bar, type cmd, and then click Command Prompt in the search results.
  2. Picture 2 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Go to the desired folder. The prompt will open to C:UsersYourName by default. If you don't want to create a new folder here, type cd path_to_folder and press ↵ Enter. Replace path_to_folder with the actual folder location.
    1. For example, if you want to create a folder on your Desktop, folder, you would type in cd desktop and press ↵ Enter.
    2. If the folder isn't in your user directory (e.g., C:UsersYourName), you'll have to type in the whole path (e.g., C:UsersSomeoneElseDesktopFiles).
  3. Picture 3 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Type mkdir NameOfFolder at the prompt. Replace NameOfFolder with the name of the folder you wish to create.
    1. For example, to make a directory named "Homework", you would type mkdir Homework.
  4. Picture 4 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Press ↵ Enter. This runs the command to create a folder with the desired name.
Method 2 of 4:

Deleting a Folder

  1. Picture 5 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Open the Command Prompt. Here are two quick ways to do so:
    1. Right-click the Start menu and select Command Prompt.
    2. Press ⊞ Win+S to open the search bar, type cmd, and then click Command Prompt in the search results.
  2. Picture 6 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Go to the folder containing the folder you want to delete. The prompt will open to C:UsersYourName by default. If the folder you want to delete is somewhere else, type cd path_to_folder and press ↵ Enter. Replace path_to_folder with the actual folder location.
    1. For example, if you want to delete a folder from your Desktop, type cd desktop.
    2. If the folder isn't in your user directory (e.g., C:UsersYourName), you'll have to type in the whole path (e.g., C:UsersSomeoneElseDesktopFiles).
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    Type rmdir /s FolderName. Replace FolderName with the name of the folder you want to delete.[1]
    1. For example, if you're trying to delete your "Homework" folder, you'd type in rmdir /s Homework here.
    2. If the folder's name has a space in it (e.g., "Homework assignments"), place the name in quotations (e.g., rmdir /s "Homework assignments").
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    Press ↵ Enter to run the command.
    1. If you try to delete a directory that contains hidden files or folders, you'll see an error that says "The directory is not empty." In this case, you'll have to remove the "hidden" and "system" attributes from the files inside the folder. To do this:[2]
      1. Use cd to change into the directory you want to delete.
      2. Run dir /a to view a list of all files in the directory and their attributes.
      3. If you're still okay with deleting all of the files in the folder, run attrib -hs *. This removes special permissions from the undeletable files.
      4. Type cd .. and press ↵ Enter to go back one directory.
      5. Run the rmdir /s command again to delete the folder.
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    Press y to confirm. This will permanently remove the directory.
Method 3 of 4:

Creating a File

  1. Picture 10 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Open the Command Prompt. Here are two quick ways to do this:
    1. Right-click the Start menu and select Command Prompt.
    2. Press ⊞ Win+S to open the search bar, type cmd, and then click Command Prompt in the search results.
  2. Picture 11 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Go to the folder in which you want to create the file. The prompt will open to C:UsersYourName by default. If the folder is somewhere else, type cd path_to_folder and press ↵ Enter. Replace path_to_folder with the actual folder location.
    1. For example, if you want to create a file on the Desktop, type cd desktop and press ↵ Enter.
    2. If the folder isn't in your user directory (e.g., C:UsersYourName), you'll have to type in the whole path (e.g., C:UsersSomeoneElseDesktopFiles).
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    Create an empty file of any type. If you don't want to create an empty file, skip to the next step. To create an empty file:
    1. Type type nul > filename.txt.
    2. Replace filename.txt with the desired file name and extension. Other common file extensions include ".docx" (Word document), ".png" (empty photo), ".xlsx" (Excel document), and ".rtf" (rich text document).
    3. Press ↵ Enter.
  4. Create a file containing certain text. If you don't want to create a file with certain text inside, skip to the next step. Use these steps to create a plain text file that you can type into:
    1. Type copy con testfile.txt, but replace testfile with the desired file name.
    2. Press ↵ Enter.
    3. Type your desired text. This is rudimentary text editor, but it's good for quick notes or code. You can use the Enter key as you type to move to the next line if you wish.
    4. Press Ctrl+Z when you're finished editing the file. This saves everything you've typed into the file.
    5. Another way to do this is to run this command: echo enter your text here > filename.txt.
  5. Create a file that's a certain size. If you don't want to create a file that's a specific size, skip thi step. To create a blank file based on byte size, use this command:
    1. fsutil file createnew filename.txt 1000.
    2. Replace filename with the desired file name, and 1000 with the actual number of bytes you'd like the file to be.
Method 4 of 4:

Deleting a File

  1. Picture 13 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Open the Command Prompt. Here are two quick ways to do this:
    1. Right-click the Start menu and select Command Prompt.
    2. Press ⊞ Win+S to open the search bar, type cmd, and then click Command Prompt in the search results.
  2. Picture 14 of How to Create and Delete Files and Directories from Windows Command Prompt
    Go to the folder containing the file you want to delete. The prompt will open to C:UsersYourName by default. If the file is somewhere else, type cd path_to_folder and press ↵ Enter. Replace path_to_folder with the actual folder location.
    1. For example, if you want to delete a file from the Desktop, type cd desktop and press ↵ Enter.
    2. If the folder isn't in your user directory (e.g., C:UsersYourName), you'll have to type in the whole path (e.g., C:UsersSomeoneElseDesktopFiles).
  3. Type dir and press ↵ Enter. This displays a list of all files in the current folder. You should see the file you want to delete in this list.
    1. Using Command Prompt to delete files results in the files being deleted permanently rather than being moved to the Recycle Bin. Exercise caution when deleting files via Command Prompt.
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    Type del filename and press ↵ Enter. Replace filename with the full name and extension of the file you want to delete. File names include file extensions (e.g., *.txt, *.jpg). This deletes the file from your computer.
    1. For example, to delete a text file entitled "hello", you would type del hello.txt into Command Prompt.
    2. If the file's name has a space in it (e.g., "hi there"), you will place the file's name in quotations (e.g., del "hi there").
    3. If you get an error that says the file cannot be deleted, try using del /f filename instead, as this force-deletes read-only files.
Update 04 March 2020
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