How to force delete an open file using PowerShell

powershell system-administration
abhinay kumar picture abhinay kumar · Aug 16, 2017 · Viewed 15.7k times · Source

Remove-Item command does not delete files which are in use. Is there any way where we can delete all the files irrespective of their state?

Answer

Code Demon picture Code Demon · Aug 16, 2017

You can do this is by finding the processes that are using the file then stop the processess.You can then delete the file after.

$allProcesses = Get-Process
#$lockedFile is the file path
foreach ($process in $allProcesses) { 
$process.Modules | where {$_.FileName -eq $lockedFile} | Stop-Process
-Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
Remove-Item $lockedFile

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