How to automatically select "No" for "Delete-Item" requests for confirmation?

Question

When using PowerShell Remove-Item to remove a directory that is not empty, it asks for confirmation:

 PS C:\Users\<redacted>\Desktop\Temp> Remove-Item .\Test Confirm The item at C:\Users\<redacted>\Desktop\Temp\Test has children and the Recurse parameter was not specified. If you continue, all children will be removed with the item. Are you sure you want to continue? [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"): 

If I run powershell in non-interactive mode, I get an error instead:

 Remove-Item : Windows PowerShell is in NonInteractive mode. Read and Prompt functionality is not available. At line:1 char:1 + Remove-Item .\Test + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Remove-Item], PSInvalidOperationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.RemoveItemCommand 

I know that I can use -Recurse so that the Remove-Item continues as if I selected the Yes option. Can I somehow act as if I chose the No option?

(Just for clarity: -Force and -Confirm:$false not what I want here.)

Answer 1

It worked for me. Files are not deleted, but the script continues. You still see the error in NonInteractive mode, but the command moves as if No were answered.

 remove-item c:\test\test Write-host "Files are still there, script still going" 

If you just want this error message to wrap it in Try \ Catch

 Try { remove-item c:\test\test } Catch { } Write-host "Files are still there, script still going" 

Answer 2

You can use the test path to determine if the directory is empty before it is deleted:

 if (-not (Test-Path .\Test\*.*)) { Try { Remove-Item .\Test -ErrorAction Stop } Catch { Continue } } 

Try Catch will handle any errors