Safely delete files and folders with very long paths (more than 260 characters) — from the command line or a modern desktop app.
Windows normally blocks file paths longer than the classic MAX_PATH of 260 characters, which makes
some files and folders impossible to delete with Explorer or del/rmdir. SuperDelete removes them by
using extended-length paths (\\?\) together with the Unicode Win32 functions for enumerating and
deleting files — supporting paths up to 32 767 characters. It can also bypass ACL checks when the
user has administrative rights on the drive (useful when a disk was moved from another machine or Windows
installation).
More on the mechanism: MSDN — Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces, section Maximum Path Length Limitation.
SuperDelete ships in two forms that share one deletion engine:
SuperDelete.exe— the original command-line tool (same flags, same behavior).SuperDeleteUI.exe— a sober, modern WPF desktop app, so a non-technical user can delete a long path safely without using a terminal.
Grab the latest pre-built, self-contained executables from the Releases page — no .NET installation required, just download and run:
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
SuperDeleteUI.exe |
The desktop app (double-click to launch). |
SuperDelete.exe |
The command-line tool. |
For Bypass ACL, right-click the executable → Run as administrator.
| Project | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
src/SuperDelete.Core |
class library (net8.0-windows) |
The shared deletion engine: long-path delete, preview/analysis, result models, service interfaces. Single source of truth. |
src/SuperDelete.Cli |
console app (net8.0-windows) |
Thin CLI over the engine. Builds to SuperDelete.exe. |
src/SuperDelete.App |
WPF app (net8.0-windows) |
The desktop UI over the same engine. Builds to SuperDeleteUI.exe. |
The engine is exposed through interfaces (IDeletionService, IPathAnalyzer) and reports progress via
IProgress<DeletionProgress>, so it carries no console/UI dependency. See
docs/NOTES.md for design decisions and future improvements.
Requires the .NET 8 SDK (dotnet --version ≥ 8.0). From the repository root:
dotnet build SuperDelete.sln -c Release
To produce the self-contained single-file executables yourself:
dotnet publish src/SuperDelete.App -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true ^
-p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true -o dist/ui
dotnet publish src/SuperDelete.Cli -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true ^
-p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true -o dist/cli
The project is Windows-only: it depends on Win32 APIs (
kernel32,advapi32,ntdll) and WPF.
The CLI is unchanged from the original tool. It takes a single file or folder path plus optional switches.
SuperDelete.exe <full path to file or folder> # with confirmation
SuperDelete.exe --silentMode <path> # or -s : skip the confirmation prompt
SuperDelete.exe --bypassAcl <path> # bypass ACLs (run as Administrator)
SuperDelete.exe --printStackTrace <path> # print full call stack on error
Switches can be combined and the order does not matter. During development:
dotnet run --project src/SuperDelete.Cli -- -s "C:\some\very\long\path"
Double-click SuperDeleteUI.exe, or during development:
dotnet run --project src/SuperDelete.App
To use Bypass ACL from the UI, start it as administrator — the option is available either way, and an indicator reminds you when it is enabled.
The window is a single, sober utility screen organized top-to-bottom:
- Header — app name, version, one-line description, a Help → About menu, and a Dark mode toggle.
- File or folder to delete — a path box plus Browse file… / Browse folder…. You can also paste a path or drag-and-drop a file/folder anywhere onto the window. A Recent dropdown lists paths used during the session.
- Actions — Analyze / Preview, Delete (danger-styled), and Cancel (while busy). A progress
bar shows the current item and a live
files · folderscount. - Summary (after Analyze) — type (file/folder), existence, path length with a badge when it exceeds 260 characters, item counts, an amber note for access/ACL or reparse-point concerns, and a red warning before recursive deletion.
- Advanced options — Preview only (dry run, deletes nothing), Bypass ACL (with a visible "enabled" indicator), Show diagnostic details, and a short explanation of the long-path limitation.
- Activity log — timestamped, real-time log with Clear and a collapsible Technical details panel (stack traces) shown when something fails.
- Status bar — a colored final status: green = success, amber = cancelled/partial, red = failure.
Safety behaviors: a real deletion always asks for an explicit confirmation naming the target and item count; Preview only never changes anything; the UI stays responsive during long deletes and the operation can be cancelled mid-run.
Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE.