How can I delete files that don't match a wildcard?

Question

For example, I can delete all .exe files using the following wildcard:

del *.exe

How can I do the opposite, i.e. delete all files that do not end in .exe?

Answer 1

You can try this.

FOR /R [directory] %%F IN (*.*) DO IF NOT "%%~xF" == ".[extension]" DEL /F /S "%%F"

Or, if you have only one .exe file, it’s even simpler.

for %i in (*.*) do if not %i == FILE.EXE del %i

Answer 2

There's no direct way, here's one scriptless way to do it:

1. Create a subdirectory.
2. Copy all *.exe* files to the subdirectory.
3. Delete all files (*.*) in the current directory.
4. Copy all files in the subdirectory to the current directory.
5. Delete all files in the subdirectory.
6. Remove (rmdir) the subdirectory

And here's the code:

C:\mydir> mkdir temp
C:\mydir> move *.exe temp
C:\mydir> del *.* /f /q
C:\mydir> move temp\*.exe .
C:\mydir> rmdir temp

Answer 3

Don't know if this will work for you (depends on if you have other read-only files on your directory) but this should work:

attrib +R *.exe
del *.*
attrib -R *.exe

Regarding your question, there's no such thing as "excluding" wildcards in DOS default commands

Answer 4

To enhance the response of the question (was about excluding wildcards): if you do not search for a specific extension, you can use this for-loop:

for /F "usebackq" %i IN (`dir /b *^|findstr /i /v <PATTERN>`) DO @echo %i

replace "echo" with "del"...