Delete Doctor

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on May 29, 2012

We've seen many file-deleting utilities. Most are freeware offering "secure" file deletion by overwriting files on your disk multiple times until the data is unrecoverable. Kevin Solway's Delete Doctor is a bit different. It's designed to delete those files that just don't want to leave your system, such as viruses and malware, files in shared folders, and files currently in use. To that end, it offers four different methods for removing files from your system. This simple freeware also has drag-and-drop capability.

Delete Doctor's interface is compact but efficient, beginning with an entry field for Files to Delete. You can add files to delete by browsing, typing in the path, and dragging and dropping. Other than Browse, Help, and Quit buttons, Delete Doctor has four features: Delete file via DOS short name, Delete file via UNC name, Delete File on System Restart, and Delete all files in folder (del *.*). Clicking Help brought up a brief but concise explanation of each. The first two use alternate file names known to the system to delete files. One of them, delete via UNC name, is based on the Universal Name Convention and can delete files on shared and mapped network drives. The Delete on Restart method is useful for deleting those persistently pesky files that remain in use by the system, particularly viruses and other bad software that you're trying to eject. When all else fails, the Delete all files method uses the DOS command to delete all the files in the folder. Be sure that you don't need any of the files in that folder because this command will delete them. You can always make a copy of all the good files and save them in a safe place, use the Delete all files feature, and then move the good files back.

Delete Doctor deleted everything we told it to. That's not the problem, and the "problem" isn't a problem unless you make it one by using Delete Doctor carelessly. Be certain you're deleting the right files because Delete Doctor is perfectly capable of deleting the wrong ones, if you tell it to.