How to Delete Undeletable Files in Windows? The “Could not Find This Item” Error

Posted in Misc. on 24 August 2010 35 comments

Two undeletable files appeared on my desktop last week, no matter how hard I try to delete/copy/move them away, it can’t seems to work. After searching online, I found the way to delete them. I am going to rewrite the steps here, in simpler step-by-step guide, how you can delete those files:

  • Hold down Windows key + R to open the Run windows
  • In the input area, type in “cmd” to open “Command Prompt”
  • In command propt, you will see lines like “C:\Users\Your NAME>”
  • My undeletable file was located at desktop, so I type “cd desktop”
    So, my path is now “C:\Users\Your Name\desktop\”

    If your file is in desktop/folder1, you should type “cd desktop\folder1″

    If your file in in local disk C or D and you would like to start browsing from there, type “cd C:\” or “cd D:\”

  • Once you are in the correct folder or path, type “dir /x” and you will see a list of all files and directories
  • Each files and folders were given a shorter name. For example, my shortcut file “Google Chrome.ink” was given a name called “GOOGLE~1.INK”
  • Now we will start deleting the undeletable file. For example, to delete the shortcut file, I type “del GOOGLE~1.INK”
    which is basically “del” followed by a space followed by the shorter file name.
  • It should be gone by now. So, who says it is undeletable :)

 

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Posted by Zen on 24 August 2010 • 39,322 visits 35 comments



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Carrie Lewis says:
August 25, 2010 at 10:26 AM

I hate when that happens! Good post, I never knew that and I have been using Windows machines forever. LOL :-P

[ Reply ]
gopher65 says:
September 6, 2010 at 9:45 AM

Thanks! I’ve had a bad file created by MuseScore (a free sheet music creation program) on my desktop for a couple months now, and this fixed it.

I used DOS back in the day and I’d actually briefly considered using cmd prompt to try and delete the file, but I didn’t think it command prompt could do anything that the windows GUI couldn’t do. Now I know better:P.

This was in Win7 64-bit btw, so this probably works in any version of Windows.

[ Reply ]
WUKONS says:
November 21, 2010 at 11:24 PM

Yeah,thank’s! It work’s! =]

[ Reply ]
Mehdi says:
December 15, 2010 at 5:29 AM

THX UR WAY WAS WORKED.

[ Reply ]
Jack says:
January 11, 2011 at 6:06 AM

Worked great, thanks so much!

[ Reply ]
iewaLT says:
January 23, 2011 at 5:20 PM

Damn, an I the only one for who it didn’t work ?
My file which is name Tron.Evolution. isn’t even displayed there in cmd. I have win7 32bit. What did I do wrong ?

[ Reply ]
mee says:
February 17, 2011 at 10:20 PM

this is very helpful
thx

[ Reply ]
Marion says:
March 6, 2011 at 4:54 AM

Hi

I need your help i tried to download a photo from the web and he downloaded alle the fotos from that web page
I could delete all of the icons exept 2 :-(

they are located on the desktop the names are
logo_profile_sn_facebook
logo_profile_sn_linkedin

I can not delete them or move them
the icons are white

I am not a computer person so please if you have any idees please let me know

thanks a lot
Marion

[ Reply ]
Marche90 says:
March 21, 2011 at 2:49 PM

Man, you’re AWESOME, worked like a charm :D

[ Reply ]
Selena says:
March 22, 2011 at 9:12 AM

Oh man, thanks so much! I’ve never had this happen to me before, so having those two stupid files stuck in that old folder on my desktop was driving me nuts, and everything else I saw to try to fix it looked to complicated/dangerous to try.

[ Reply ]
Auwen says:
May 12, 2011 at 10:42 PM

ALELUJAHHHH IT WORKS HAHAH THANKS MAN XD

[ Reply ]
AD Salmon says:
May 15, 2011 at 5:53 AM

Help if you can… I was hopeful this was going to work based on all the positive feedback and success from others on this posting. I have seriously been to dozens of sites (many of them multiple times) downloaded “unlocker” and several other similar items multiple times all with the hopes of removing two stubborn folders on my desktop. All the posts I have read start with the same story and or problem. This HAS to be fixable! For what ever reason I can’t remove these two folder.. Please Help. This is SO annoying…

[ Reply ]
Salman says:
July 8, 2011 at 5:18 AM

http://cannotdeletefile.net

You should try this tool it will surely help you out

[ Reply ]
jatin singh says:
October 14, 2011 at 5:48 PM

wow, man you are the best in the world….yes its work………thanx my friend you are amazing………..:)

[ Reply ]
Rootbeerz says:
October 23, 2011 at 8:31 AM

Please reply back. I tried this and after i tped in y and entered it did not work and it is still there. I tried doing it again then restarted my computer. ITS STILL THERE. . . . Please help the name is GREEN SCREEN and i have windows 7 64-bit VAIO laptop and i run as admin. I try to delete it normally but it says this file is no longer located in C:\Users\*******\Desktop. Verify the item’s location and try again.

GREEN SCREEN
Date created:2/21/2011 3:44 PM

TRY AGAIN CANCEL

[ Reply ]
Brooke! says:
November 6, 2011 at 1:51 PM

I LOVE YOU.
I’ve been stuck with this blank picture for about 5 months now, I just left it but I’m soo happy it’s gone c:
Thanks a bunch!

[ Reply ]
fiona says:
December 31, 2011 at 12:14 PM

Thank you so much dude! thanks thanks thanks :)

[ Reply ]
DEREK says:
January 28, 2012 at 10:34 AM

This is best and easys way You are great ZEN

[ Reply ]
giramondo says:
February 3, 2012 at 4:08 PM

Awesome! Do you know the explanation for this?

[ Reply ]
anon says:
March 3, 2012 at 9:13 AM

I have used unlocker and sdelete in the past and they have served me well. This time though, they couldn’t do the job.

dir /x worked!

Much appreciated.

[ Reply ]
eric says:
April 25, 2012 at 2:35 AM

Thanks so much! This worked perfectly. I was about to go nuts.

[ Reply ]
JCeasf says:
May 18, 2012 at 10:20 AM

Does not work for me, Windows 7

[ Reply ]
Julia says:
July 12, 2012 at 10:29 AM

Awesome! Worked perfectly! Thanks^^

[ Reply ]
chris says:
July 17, 2012 at 6:08 AM

This does not work on folder names.

I have Win 7, 64.

In my C drive there is a folder c;\1

In that folder I have two subfolders which will never go away (months now)

C:\1\Business words [dir /x BUSINE~!]

and

C:\1\Compelling conversations [dir /x COMPEL~!]

Page after page in the internet is devoted to deleting FILE NAMES but not folders like this.

And now they want to offer us Windows 8 upgrades for less than $ 50 so we’ll never see free service packs again. Instead we’ll be paying for them as new beta operating systems.

WTF Microsoft and Bill? I’ve given you tens of thousands of dollars since DOS and through every Windows OS and every version of MS Office, and Visio and Visual Studio, etc, etc, etc.

Microsoft if you want to impress me don’t give billions away to charities, get the Windows operating system into every emergency room, every air traffic control tower and while you’re at it give us one that works just for the simple home users who’ve paved and lined your life in silk.

[ Reply ]
Alex says:
July 24, 2012 at 11:48 AM

Thank you very much. This was helpful.

[ Reply ]
Umar says:
July 31, 2012 at 3:10 AM

I have a zero byte file on my desktop but prob is this is without any extension .. what do to? …. when i see director with dir /x it shows extension of other files but not that file .. anybody please help with this?

[ Reply ]
renz0302 says:
August 1, 2012 at 6:20 PM

thanks, really!! it worked!!!

[ Reply ]
ADRI says:
September 27, 2012 at 10:07 AM

Doesn’t work for me… says file is in use.

[ Reply ]
Yoni says:
October 14, 2012 at 3:26 AM

Thank you, it works!

[ Reply ]
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