Delete old files in recycle bin with powershell

Question

Ok, I have a script I am writing in powershell that will delete old files in the recycle bin. I want it to delete all files from the recycle bin that were deleted more than 2 days ago. I have done lots of research on this and have not found a suitable answer.

This is what I have so far(found the script online, i don't know much powershell):

$Path = 'C' + ':\$Recycle.Bin'
Get-ChildItem $Path -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
#Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-3) } |
Remove-Item -Recurse -exclude *.ini -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

It is working great with one exception, it checks the file parameter "LastWriteTime". That is awesome if the user deletes the file they same day they modify it. Otherwise it fails.

How can I modify this code so that it will check when the file was deleted, not when it was written.

-On a side note, if I run this script from an administrator account on Microsoft Server 2008 will it work for all users recycle bins or just mine?

Answer:

the code that worked for me is:

$Shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$Global:Recycler = $Shell.NameSpace(0xa)

foreach($item in $Recycler.Items())
{
    $DeletedDate = $Recycler.GetDetailsOf($item,2) -replace "\u200f|\u200e",""
    $dtDeletedDate = get-date $DeletedDate 
    If($dtDeletedDate -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-3))
    {
        Remove-Item -Path $item.Path -Confirm:$false -Force -Recurse
    }#EndIF
}#EndForeach item

It works awesome for me, however 2 questions remain...How do I do this with multiple drives? and Will this apply to all users or just me?

Raf Raf · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-02T15:33:16

This article has answers to all your questions

http://baldwin-ps.blogspot.be/2013/07/empty-recycle-bin-with-retention-time.html

Code for posterity:

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
#
#       Author    :   Baldwin D.
#       Description : Empty Recycle Bin with Retention (Logoff Script)
#     
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------

$Global:Collection = @()

$Shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$Global:Recycler = $Shell.NameSpace(0xa)

$csvfile = "\\YourNetworkShare\RecycleBin.txt"
$LogFailed = "\\YourNetworkShare\RecycleBinFailed.txt"


function Get-recyclebin
{ 
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param
    (
        $RetentionTime = "7",
        [Switch]$DeleteItems
    )

    $User = $env:USERNAME
    $Computer = $env:COMPUTERNAME
    $DateRun = Get-Date

    foreach($item in $Recycler.Items())
        {
        $DeletedDate = $Recycler.GetDetailsOf($item,2) -replace "\u200f|\u200e","" #Invisible Unicode Characters
        $DeletedDate_datetime = get-date $DeletedDate   
        [Int]$DeletedDays = (New-TimeSpan -Start $DeletedDate_datetime -End $(Get-Date)).Days

        If($DeletedDays -ge $RetentionTime)
            {
            $Size = $Recycler.GetDetailsOf($item,3)

            $SizeArray = $Size -split " "
            $Decimal = $SizeArray[0] -replace ",","."
            If ($SizeArray[1] -contains "bytes") { $Size = [int]$Decimal /1024 }
            If ($SizeArray[1] -contains "KB") { $Size = [int]$Decimal }
            If ($SizeArray[1] -contains "MB") { $Size = [int]$Decimal * 1024 }
            If ($SizeArray[1] -contains "GB") { $Size = [int]$Decimal *1024 *1024 }

       $Object = New-Object Psobject -Property @{
                Computer = $computer
                User = $User
                DateRun = $DateRun
                Name = $item.Name
                Type = $item.Type
                SizeKb = $Size
                Path = $item.path
                "Deleted Date" = $DeletedDate_datetime
                "Deleted Days" = $DeletedDays }

            $Object

                If ($DeleteItems)
                {
                    Remove-Item -Path $item.Path -Confirm:$false -Force -Recurse

                    if ($?)
                    {
                        $Global:Collection += @($object)
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Add-Content -Path $LogFailed -Value $error[0]
                    }
                }#EndIf $DeleteItems
            }#EndIf($DeletedDays -ge $RetentionTime)
}#EndForeach item
}#EndFunction

Get-recyclebin -RetentionTime 7 #-DeleteItems #Remove the comment if you wish to actually delete the content


if (@($collection).count -gt "0")
{
$Collection = $Collection | Select-Object "Computer","User","DateRun","Name","Type","Path","SizeKb","Deleted Days","Deleted Date"
$CsvData = $Collection | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation
$Null, $Data = $CsvData

Add-Content -Path $csvfile -Value $Data
}

[System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($shell)

#ScriptEnd

Delete old files in recycle bin with powershell

5 Answers