How do I automatically choose "No" when Remove-Item prompts for confirmation?

powershell

Solution

IMHO the correct answer is to set the -ErrorAction to SilentlyContinue. Then you don't have to have empty try-catch code.

Like this:

PS C:\Users\<redacted>\Desktop\Temp> Remove-Item .\Test -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

UPDATE: 06-26-2023 PowerShell 7 changed this behavior as @Destroy666 pointed out. You can use the ternary operator in PoSH 7 to still make it a one liner and avoid empty try catch blocks.

function TestIt () {
    $myFolder = 'C:\MyTestFolder'
    New-Item -Path $myFolder -ItemType Directory
    Set-Content -Path $myFolder\myfile.txt -Value 'My test text content'
    (Test-Path -Path $myFolder\*.*) ? $null : (Remove-Item -Path $myFolder)

    Get-ChildItem -Path $myFolder
}

TestIt

Running this gives the results:

PS C:\> . .\test.ps1

    Directory: C:\

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
d----           6/26/2023  6:28 PM                MyTestFolder

    Directory: C:\MyTestFolder

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a---           6/26/2023  6:28 PM             22 myfile.txt

PS C:\>

Problem

Original source