Windows XP Tips: Delete Contents from Folder without Deleting Folders

There may be many instances where you would want to delete all the contents inside the folder, but wanted to maintain the folder structure as such. By default Windows does not provide any such option. If there are lots of folders inside a particular folder maintaining a folder structure, then its difficult to delete contents from all the folders. This task can be done using a registry entry.

To do this go to Start-> Run and type ‘regedit‘. In the registry, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell key. Right click on ‘Shell’ and then create the ‘Empty folder Contents‘ sub key with the New|Key. then create the command key in the same way. Open ‘Default‘ by right clicking on it in the right hand side window. and fill it with the following entry- ‘cmd /c “cd /d %1 && del /s /f /q *.*.

Once you close the registry, the new command will appear in the right click menu of the folder. Now whenever you want to delete the contents, select “Empty Folder Contents” and only the contents will be deleted, the folder structure will remain intact.

NB: Please back up your registry before making any changes.