Find and Delete Empty Folders Recursively

A recursive delete on the wrong path is unrecoverable. **-WhatIf** shows the folders that would be removed without touching anything.

$root = 'D:\Archive'
Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { -not (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force) } | Measure-Object
Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { -not (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force) } | Select-Object -First 10 FullName

A folder with a hidden file is not empty, and a folder holding only an empty folder is not empty until the child goes. That is why one pass is rarely enough.

Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | ForEach-Object { $c = (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force | Measure-Object).Count; if ($c -eq 0) { $_.FullName } } | Measure-Object
Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force -Attributes Hidden | Select-Object -First 5 FullName

The same pipeline with **Remove-Item -WhatIf** prints each action. Reading the list before the real run is what prevents deleting a folder that only looks empty.

Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { -not (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force) } | Remove-Item -WhatIf
Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { -not (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force) } | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Deleting a child turns its parent into a candidate. Two or three passes usually clear a deep tree; a loop with a stop condition does it cleanly.

do {
  $before = (Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Measure-Object).Count
  Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { -not (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force) } | Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
  $after = (Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Measure-Object).Count
  "$before -> $after"
} while ($before -ne $after)

Folders that survive usually contain a hidden file, a junction or a file locked by a process. That residue is information, not a failure.

Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | ForEach-Object { $c = (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force | Measure-Object).Count; if ($c -eq 0) { $_.FullName } } | Select-Object -First 10
Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { $_.LinkType } | Select-Object FullName,LinkType,Target

A log of deleted paths makes an accidental deletion investigable. Writing it to a file costs nothing and covers the case where a path mattered.

$log = "$env:USERPROFILE\empty-folders-$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd).txt"
Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Where-Object { -not (Get-ChildItem $_.FullName -Force) } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName | Set-Content $log
Get-Content $log | Measure-Object -Line
Get-ChildItem $root -Directory -Recurse -Force | Measure-Object