How to recursively delete directory from command line in windows?

Question

Is there a windows equivalent of sudo rm -r [directory-name]?

Answer 1

deltree if I remember my DOS.

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It seems it's been updated... this is what you want:

RMDIR /S

This removes the directory C:\test, with prompts :

rmdir c:\test /s

This does the same, without prompts :

rmdir c:\test /s /q

Regarding the sudo part of your question, if you need more priviliges, you can first open a new shell as another user account using the runas command, like this:

runas /user:Administrator cmd
rmdir c:\test /s /q

Answer 2

If you want to delete a long and complicated folder structure from the command prompt that RmDir won't touch and not even explorer can display, I've found robocopy can be very efficient at removing the structure. In the example below we have a massive structure inside the folder administrator, the structure is so deep that nothing can remove it. We create a new empty folder called (strangely enough!) "new folder". We then use the robocopy command, telling it the source folder is "new folder" and the destination folder is "D:\Administrator" with the /MIR parameter which means it will purge anything not in the source folder.

robocopy "D:\new folder" D:\Administrator /MIR

In this case the folder paths were so long they would not even fit in the command prompt window Screen Buffer, but Robocopy will traverse the structure and remove any "extra" files and folders (ie anything not in the new empty folder, which is everything).