Windows – Iterate all files in a directory using a ‘for’ loop

Enjoy:

forfiles -p "C:\what\ever" -s -m *.* -d <number of days> -c "cmd /c del @path"

See forfiles documentation for more details.

For more goodies, refer to An A-Z Index of the Windows XP command line.

If you don't have forfiles installed on your machine, copy it from any Windows Server 2003 to your Windows XP machine at %WinDir%\system32\. This is possible since the EXE is fully compatible between Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Later versions of Windows and Windows Server have it installed by default.

For Windows 7 and newer (including Windows 10):

The syntax has changed a little. Therefore the updated command is:

forfiles /p "C:\what\ever" /s /m *.* /D -<number of days> /C "cmd /c del @path"

Command line usage:

for /f %f in ('dir /b c:\') do echo %f

Batch file usage:

for /f %%f in ('dir /b c:\') do echo %%f

Update: if the directory contains files with space in the names, you need to change the delimiter the for /f command is using. for example, you can use the pipe char.

for /f "delims=|" %%f in ('dir /b c:\') do echo %%f

Update 2: (quick one year and a half after the original answer :-)) If the directory name itself has a space in the name, you can use the usebackq option on the for:

for /f "usebackq delims=|" %%f in (`dir /b "c:\program files"`) do echo %%f

And if you need to use output redirection or command piping, use the escape char (^):

for /f "usebackq delims=|" %%f in (`dir /b "c:\program files" ^| findstr /i microsoft`) do echo %%f