1. Messages
  2. in win10 in a folder how do you tell Win10 to delete only all the files that have a same particular extension but not the other files in that folder that have different extensions?

moderated Re: in win10 in a folder how do you tell Win10 to delete only all the files that have a same particular extension but not the other files in that folder that have different extensions?

Bill White <billwhite92701@...>
 

Hi, Brian. I tried doing what you said. I opened the folder Documents, searched for files with an mp3 extension, and it gave me mp3 results from subfolders, as well as files which no longer reside in that folder.

I put into the search Window (CONTROL plus E) once the folder was open:

 

*.mp3

 

Bill White

billwhite92701@...

 

From: main@jfw.groups.io [mailto:main@jfw.groups.io] On Behalf Of Brian Vogel
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2020 8:25 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: in win10 in a folder how do you tell Win10 to delete only all the files that have a same particular extension but not the other files in that folder that have different extensions?

 

On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 10:33 PM, ratshtron wrote:

open the folder and move to the first file with the particular extention and now, press and hold the ctrl key and start arrowing down through the list of files and every time you land on another file with same extention, press the spacebar to select it. be sure to continue to hold the ctrl key. once you have selected all the files with the same extention, press the delete key and the files will be deleted once you confirm you wish to delete the number of multi-files.


It is much, much easier to use the search function (CTRL+E) and enter the search criteria for all the files you want, then Select All, then delete.

So, once you're in the folder, say you want to delete all PDF files in the folder.  Hit CTRL+E then type *.pdf in the search box then hit enter.  The search will return only files in that folder that are PDF files.  Hit CTRL+A to select all, then hit the DEL key.  You're done.

Of course, the search criteria can be anything that's appropriate, so if you wanted only PDF files that start with, say, Nov, then type Nov*.pdf in the search box and hit enter.  You can use any extension and you can combine things with OR if you want, say all JPG files OR PDF files, that would be *.jpg OR *.PDF, and you'll only get files with one of those two extensions back.

Hand gathering is far more error prone.
 
--

Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1909, Build 18363  

The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it.
       ~ Lawrence Krauss
Join main@jfw.groups.io to automatically receive all group messages.