Need Windows 7 alternative to RED (Remove Empty Directories)

[tinjaw]

There still is not a version of RED compatible with Vista or Windows 7. Does anybody have a recommendation for a similar program? I am not looking for Directory Opus, I am looking for a focus tools with a nice UI to locate and remove empty directories with options to allow me to find them and then choose which ones I want to delete.

[hpearce]

Hmm, Not sure what u want ... I use empty folder nuker which interfaces into the filemanger on right click
http://simonwai.com/developments/empty_folder_nuker/

[sajman99]

Here's one called Fast Empty Folder Finder. Don't know much about it as I don't use this type of tool myself.
 
http://www.technixupdate.com/find-empty-folders-with-fast-empty-folder-finder/

[Eóin]

Why would you want to do this might I ask? Seems rather pointless. Also seems a touch dodgy as (buggy?) applications could well rely on those folders existing.

[hpearce]

because of clutter left by uninstalls .... of course it is wise to review what folders to delete and where they are located.

[Eóin]

Well once done with care then each to their own. For me I'd consider the risks to far outweigh the benefits.

[tinjaw]

Why would you want to do this might I ask? Seems rather pointless. Also seems a touch dodgy as (buggy?) applications could well rely on those folders existing.

Sometimes I have a USB stick that is getting full or a portable HDD. I take the entire contents and move it to a directory on a larger external hard drive. I then pick through the directory deleting what I don't need to keep and reorganizing what I want to keep. It is easier to sort through the directory if I can first cleanup all the empty directories.

It's just a convenience thing in this case.

I often also use it on a directory before archiving it using some non-standard compression program - as those usually allow you to ignore empty directories.

[Eóin]

Ah well that makes sense. I was worried buy the quote "...as they does not mean anything if they don’t have any contents in them." from the technixupdate.com link. I had visions of users purging all the empty folders on their system and then suffering inexplicable crashes  a week or two down the road.

[sajman99]

...I was worried buy the quote "...as they does not mean anything if they don’t have any contents in them." from the technixupdate.com link...

Kind of a scary statement, I agree. Many empty folders are placeholders which are there for a reason, so I share your concern with system-wide cleaning.

[hpearce]

I would hope any half smart program would re-create any folder needed that it created as empty to begin with.

[f0dder]

I would hope any half smart program would re-create any folder needed that it created as empty to begin with.

Don't depend on it. After all, if I create a folder I need in an app installer, why would I need to re-create it later on? Pesky users running around touching stuff they shouldn't, sheesh

[sajman99]

New version 2.0 of Fast Empty Folder Finder has been released.
http://listeningpc.com/fast-empty-folder-finder

I've been using an older utility on XP called Empty Folder Nuker (mentioned by hpearce ) due to the convenient shell integration.
http://simonwai.com/developments/empty_folder_nuker/  But No Win7 support for this one(?).

[Curt]

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[sajman99]

If you want to use a cannon, in order to shoot a mockingbird...

Curt, your post reminded me I already have TreeSize Free which can show empty folders (and a heckuva lot more). Its scan speed is very impressive-- seems I don't really need Empty Folder Nuker. 

btw I also tried the new version of Fast Empty Folder Finder. If there's more than one empty folder, it works fine. But with only one empty folder, it doesn't seem to find anything.

[erikts]

What about this one line command?

Code

DIR /AD/B/S | SORT /R > EMPTIES.BAT

No GUI though!

[lanux128]

NECRO THREAD ALERT

There still is not a version of RED compatible with Vista or Windows 7.

there is a compatible version now.

Finally, there is a new version with a bunch of new features and now compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7!

• http://www.jonasjohn.de/lab/red.htm

[Curt]

There still is not a version of RED compatible with Vista or Windows 7.

there is a compatible version now.

Finally, there is a new version with a bunch of new features and now compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7!

• http://www.jonasjohn.de/lab/red.htm

jonasjohn.de:

Features

   * Shows empty directories before deleting them
   * Supports multiple delete modes (including Delete to recycle bin) (Version 2.2)
   * Allows white and black listing of directories by using filter lists
   * Can detect directories with empty files as empty

Version 2.2's sourcecode will soon be available!

License

RED is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Feel free to have a look into the sourcecode behind RED to fix it, fork it, extend it, learn from it, improve it, ...

-------------------------

Related software

If RED is not what you wanted, you could try these freeware tools that basically do the same job.

   * FSlint (really good Linux application)
   * DirClean (command-line application)
   * Delete Empty Directories - Perl & Bash version
   * Empty Folder Nuker (Windows GUI tool)
   * DelEmpty (Windows GUI tool)
   * Delete Your Empty Folders with a windows batch script