Zero kb file in download

Some applications create empty 0-byte files in their data folders and fail to clear them up. Over time, if you’re seeing 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, then follow one of the methods below.

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

1. Using “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!

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2. Using Windows Search

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

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

In the search box, type or

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

size:empty AND ext:js

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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 command so that you don’t have to change 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 on the drive.

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

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 files, you’d use 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 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 .

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

RELATED:How to Find and Delete Empty Folders Automatically in Windows

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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 (eg., ) :

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 (eg., )

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

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4. 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

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 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.

RELATED:How to Remove Empty Folders Automatically in Windows

That’s it!