How to Delete Empty files (0 byte) in Windows?

Some applications create empty 0-byte files in their data folders and fail to clear them up. Over time, if you see many zero-byte files in a folder hierarchy, here are some methods to find all those 0-byte files and delete them.

Find and delete 0-byte files recursively in a folder tree

It’s important to note that deleting 0-byte files arbitrarily can be problematic sometimes, as some applications may need them as a placeholder or for some other reason. If you’re sure that you don’t need any 0-byte files in a folder path and want to delete them all, follow one of the methods below.

Let’s start with a neat 3rd party freeware GUI tool, and then cover the native methods next.

1. Using the “Find Empty Files-n-Folders” utility

Find Empty Files-n-Folders is an excellent tool that can find and delete empty files (0-byte) and empty folders recursively under a folder tree.

Download Find Empty Files-n-Folders (600KB installer) from Ashisoft.com.

Select the folder and click Scan Now.

The tool will list empty files and folders in separate tabs.

From the Empty Files tab, click Mark all Files and then click Delete Files.

Similarly, to delete the 0-byte files in the selected folder tree, click on the Empty Files tab.

Ashisoft.com has other awesome tools that you can check out!

---

2. Using Windows Search

Windows Search allows you to list all 0-byte files using the size: query operator.

Open the folder where you want to find or delete empty files.

In the search box, type size:empty or size:0 KB

To filter the results by a file extension (e.g., javascript files → extension .js ), use the following Advance Query Syntax (AQS):

size:empty AND ext:js

---

3. Using Command Prompt

To list all 0-byte (0 KB) files is a folder and sub-folders recursively and output the names to a file, use the following command.

Note that you’ll need to run the command from the folder where you want to find or delete empty (0 KB) files.

for /r %F in (*) do @if %~zF==0 echo "%F" >>d:\0byte-files.txt

Alternately, you can include the target folder path in the for command so that you don’t have to change the directory in the console window. Example:

for /r "d:\websites" %F in (*) do @if %~zF==0 echo "%F" >>d:\0byte-files.txt

That way, you don’t have to switch over to that particular folder in Command Prompt

The complete list of 0-byte files output is written to the file named 0byte-files.txt on the D:\ drive.

To delete the files, you’d use the del command instead of echo.

for /r %F in (*.*) do @if %~zF==0 del "%F"

or mention the target folder path in the command itself:

for /r "d:\websites" %F in (*.*) do @if %~zF==0 del "%F"

Find and delete 0-byte files having a specific file extension

In the above examples, you can even filter by file extension. For instance, to delete 0-byte .txt files, you’d use *.txt instead of *.* or *

for /r %F in (*.txt) do @if %~zF==0 del "%F"

or with mentioning the folder path:

for /r "d:\websites" %F in (*.txt) do @if %~zF==0 del "%F"

That would delete all the empty .txt files from the current folder and sub-folders, or in the specified folder tree recursively.

Create a Batch file

If you’d like to make a batch file to find and list empty files and output the results to a text file, here is one:

@echo off
set out="d:\0byte-files.txt"
for /r "%~1." %%A in (*.*) do if %%~zA == 0 echo "%%~fA" >> %out%

Save the above contents as find-empty-files.bat.

To delete empty files rather than outputting the list of files, use this batch file:

@echo off
for /r "%~1." %%A in (*.*) do if %%~zA == 0 del "%%~fA"

To run the batch file against a folder recursively, you’d use the following syntax:

d:\scripts\find-empty-files.bat  d:\websites

---

4. Using PowerShell

Start PowerShell.exe and use one of the following methods:

List empty (0 KB) files

To get the list of 0-byte files under a folder tree, use this command-line syntax:

Get-ChildItem -Path "D:\websites\test" -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -eq $false -and $_.Length -eq 0 }  | Select -ExpandProperty FullName

To output the list to a file:

Get-ChildItem -Path "D:\websites" -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -eq $false -and $_.Length -eq 0 } | Select -ExpandProperty FullName | Set-Content -Path d:\found.txt

To output the list to grid view:

Get-ChildItem -Path "D:\websites" -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -eq $false -and $_.Length -eq 0 }  | out-gridview

To list only a specific file type (e.g., .bmp) :

Get-ChildItem -Path "D:\websites" -include *.bmp -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -eq $false -and $_.Length -eq 0 }  | out-gridview

Delete empty (0 KB) files

To delete all the 0-byte files under a folder tree, use this command-line syntax:

Get-ChildItem -Path "D:\websites" -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -eq $false -and $_.Length -eq 0 }  | remove-item

To delete 0-byte files having a specific extension (e.g., .bmp)

Get-ChildItem -Path "D:\websites" -include *.bmp -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -eq $false -and $_.Length -eq 0 }  | remove-item

---

5. Using VBScript

The following VBScript clears empty (0-byte) files in a folder tree recursively.

Copy the following code to Notepad and save it as del-zero-byte-files.vbs

Option Explicit

If (WScript.Arguments.Count <> 1) Then
   WScript.Echo("Usage: cscript DeleteEmptyFolders.vbs {path}")
   WScript.Quit(1)
End If

Dim strPath : strPath = WScript.Arguments(0)
Dim fso : Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim objFolder : Set objFolder = fso.GetFolder(strPath)
Dim sDelList, sDelErr, sFilePath
Dim iCnt
iCnt = 0

DeleteZeroByteFiles objFolder

Sub DeleteZeroByteFiles(folder)
   Dim subfolder, file

   On Error Resume Next
   'Skip errors when accessing Junctions, etc.
   For Each subfolder In folder.SubFolders
      DeleteZeroByteFiles subfolder
   Next
   On Error Goto 0
   
   For Each file In folder.files
      If file.size = 0 Then
      sFilePath = file.Path
      On Error Resume Next
      fso.DeleteFile file, True
      If Err.number <> 0 Then
         sDelErr = sDelErr & Err.number & ": " & Err.description & _
         	vbCrLf & sFilePath & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
      Else
         sDelList = sDelList & vbCrLf & sFilePath
	 iCnt  = iCnt + 1
      End If		
      On Error Goto 0
   End If	
   Next
End Sub

If sDelList = "" And sDelErr = "" Then
   WScript.Echo "No Empty files found under the " & _
	"""" & strPath & """" & " tree"
   WScript.Quit
End If

If sDelList <> "" then sDelList = "List of empty files deleted" & vbCrLf _
   & String(38,"-") & vbCrLf & sDelList & vbCrLf & _
	vbCrLf  & "Total: " & iCnt & " files deleted."

If sDelErr <> "" then sDelErr = "These files could not be deleted" & _
   vbCrLf & String(45,"-") & vbCrLf & sDelErr

WScript.Echo sDelList & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & sDelErr

Usage

To run the script against a folder, you can use wscript.exe or cscript.exe, like below:

cscript d:\scripts\del-zero-byte-files.vbs "d:\travel documents"
wscript d:\scripts\del-zero-byte-files.vbs "d:\travel documents"

CScript.exe shows the outputs to the console window. That means you’ll need to run it from a Command Prompt window to see the output.

WScript.exe shows the outputs in the GUI.

via the Send To menu

You can create a shortcut to the script in your SendTo folder and name it as Delete 0-byte Files. Prefix wscript.exe in the shortcut properties target field.

Then, right-click on a folder where you want to delete empty files in the folder tree recursively → click Send To → click Delete 0-byte Files in the Send To menu.

You’ll see the list of empty files deleted and the total, and files which couldn’t be deleted with the respective error codes displayed.

---

6. Using DelEmpty.exe

DelEmpty.exe is a console tool from IntelliAdmin that can delete empty directories recursively. This program can also swiftly delete the empty 0-byte files recursively.

The following is the command-line syntax for the program:

DelEmpty.exe OPTIONS [PATH]

Argument	Description
-f	Delete empty (0-byte) files
-d	Delete empty directories
-v	Verbose mode
-c	Confirm mode (Shows what was deleted)
-s	Include sub-directories (traverse subfolders)
-l	List what would be deleted (will not delete)
-y	Delete without (y/n) prompt

Example 1: To list the empty files under a directory and its subdirectories, I used the following command-line syntax:

DelEmpty.exe "New Folder" -f -c -s -y -l

The above command shows the list of empty folders, but will not delete them since the -l (list only) switch is used.

For folder names containing space(s) — e.g., Mozilla Firefox, be sure to include the double-quotes around the path.

Example 2: To delete the empty files in a folder and subfolders, I ran the same command-line but without the -l switch:

DelEmpty.exe "New Folder" -f -c -s -y

Do you know any other utility that can traverse sub-folders and delete empty files? Let’s know your comments.