I wrote a function for just this purpose a few years ago, also has the option to clean up empty folders.
Function Remove-AgedItems
{
<#
.DESCRIPTION
Function that can be used to remove files older than a specified age and also remove empty folders.
.PARAMETER Path
Specifies the target Path.
.PARAMETER Age
Specifies the target Age in days, e.g. Last write time of the item.
.PARAMETER Force
Switch parameter that allows for hidden and read-only files to also be removed.
.PARAMETER Empty Folder
Switch parameter to use empty folder remove function.
.EXAMPLE
Remove-AgedItems -Path 'C:\Users\rholland\TesfFunction' -Age 7 #Remove Files In The Target Path That Are Older Than The Specified Age (in days), Recursively.
Remove-AgedItems -Path 'C:\Users\rholland\TesfFunction' -Age 7 -Force #Remove Files In The Target Path That Are Older Than The Specified Age (in days), Recursively. Force will include hidden and read-only files.
Remove-AgedItems -Path 'C:\Users\rholland\TesfFunction' -Age 0 -EmptyFolder #Remove All Empty Folders In Target Path.
Remove-AgedItems -Path 'C:\Users\rholland\TesfFunction' -Age 7 -EmptyFolder #Remove All Empty Folders In Target Path That Are Older Than Specified Age (in days).
.NOTES
The -EmptyFolders switch branches the function so that it will only perform its empty folder cleanup operation, it will not affect aged files with this switch.
It is recommended to first perform a cleanup of the aged files in the target path and them perform a cleanup of the empty folders.
#>
param ([String][Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
$Path,
[int][Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
$Age,
[switch]$Force,
[switch]$EmptyFolder)
$CurrDate = (get-date)
if (Test-Path -Path $Path)
{
$Items = (Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse -Force -File)
$AgedItems = ($Items | Where-object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt $CurrDate.AddDays(- $Age) })
if ($EmptyFolder.IsPresent)
{
$Folders = @()
ForEach ($Folder in (Get-ChildItem -Path $Path -Recurse | Where { ($_.PSisContainer) -and ($_.LastWriteTime -lt $CurrDate.AddDays(- $Age)) }))
{
$Folders += New-Object PSObject -Property @{
Object = $Folder
Depth = ($Folder.FullName.Split("\")).Count
}
}
$Folders = $Folders | Sort Depth -Descending
$Deleted = @()
ForEach ($Folder in $Folders)
{
If ($Folder.Object.GetFileSystemInfos().Count -eq 0)
{
Remove-Item -Path $Folder.Object.FullName -Force
Start-Sleep -Seconds 0.2
}
}
}
else
{
if ($Force.IsPresent)
{
$AgedItems | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force
}
else
{
$AgedItems | Remove-Item -Recurse
}
}
}
Else
{
Write-Error "Target path has not been found"
}
}
Remove-AgedItems -Path 'C:\Users\rholland\TestFunction' -Age 7
Remove-AgedItems -Path 'C:\Users\rholland\TestFunction' -Age 0 -EmptyFolder
Microsoft