How to make a batch file delete itself?

Question

Is it possible to make a batch file delete itself?

I have tried to make it execute another file to delete it but this did not work.

Does any one know how I could do it?

The batch file I am using is elevated. My OS is Windows 7 32 bit.

Answer 1

npocmaka's answer works, but it generates the following error message: "The batch file cannot be found." This isn't a problem if the console window closes when the script terminates, as the message will flash by so fast, no one will see it. But it is very undesirable if the console remains open after the script terminates.

The trick to deleting the file without an error message is to get another hidden process to delete the file after the script terminates. This can easily be done using START /B to launch a delete process. It takes time for the delete process to initiate and execute, so the parent script has a chance to terminate cleanly before the delete happens.

start /b "" cmd /c del "%~f0"&exit /b

You can simply use a CALLed subroutine if you are worried about SHIFT trashing the %0 value.

call :deleteSelf&exit /b
:deleteSelf
start /b "" cmd /c del "%~f0"&exit /b

Update 2015-07-16

I've discovered another really slick way to have a batch script delete itself without generating any error message. The technique depends on a newly discovered behavior of GOTO (discovered by some Russians), described in English at http://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6491

In summary, (GOTO) 2>NUL behaves like EXIT /B, except it allows execution of concatenated commands in the context of the caller!

So all you need is

(goto) 2>nul & del "%~f0"

The returned ERRORLEVEL will be 0 because DEL is the last command and it always clears the ERRORLEVEL.

If you need to have control of the ERRORLEVEL, then something like

(goto) 2>nul & del "%~f0" & cmd /c exit /b 10