I am trying to write a batch file to clean up residue of roaming profiles left on our machines. I have tried using the DEL command, but I can't get it to work correctly. I am trying to delete FOLDERS out of the c:\documents and settings\ folder, but I don't want to delete all directories, namely the All Users, Default User, and certain SMS folders as well. The folders that I am trying to delete are all in the same naming format (they are residue of student's profiles from here on campus). I have tried using question marks as wildcards, but that isn't working either. Any help would be great! We use WindowsXP Pro on a Win2k native domain. Brian

There is no DOS in WinXP. So if you really mean to "delete folders using DOS", then you need to install DOS, or boot your system from a DOS boot disk first. But if you mean to delete folders using "NT System Console" (a.k.a "Command Prompt") instead of DOS, then you have answered in a wrong forum, as the rule (warning messages) of this forum says. For more information about the "Command Prompt" (Win32 Console) in WinNT/2K/XP, you may read this page: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/stewartb/cmdprompt.html If you want to do so on DOS systems, you can try the DELTREE command with wildcards, which should achieve this; but on NT systems, you need to do in a different way, partly because there is no DELTREE command, and the usage of DEL command is different there.

For more information about this, the warning messages of this forum, and some useful links/examples, please look at these threads: http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/14504.html http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/14518.html