FMS Empty Folder Remover

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on August 29, 2011

We are constantly installing and uninstalling software, and as we're sure you can imagine, that leaves us with a whole lot of empty folders and other junk on our computer. For that reason, we were quite excited about trying FMS Empty Folder Remover. This utility promises to scan your machine for empty folders and then delete them, tidying up your hard drive after multiple installations and uninstallations.

The program's interface is bare bones and not entirely intuitive. We clicked the Open Folder button since it seemed like the most logical starting place, and an Explorer window opened that let us select the disk we wanted to scan. We made our selection, clicked OK, and waited. And waited some more. It wasn't entirely obvious when the program was done scanning; after 10 minutes it was still displaying a message asking us to wait, but it had also created a lengthy list of empty folders. As with any program that promises to delete unwanted files or folders, you will want to be careful that what you're deleting actually is unwanted; you can never be too cautious when getting rid of things, especially if you're not completely sure what they actually do. Check boxes next to each item let us deselect any folders we had reservations about. Once we'd made our selections, we clicked the Delete Checked From Disk button and the folders disappeared. We ran the program several more times and each time it came up with yet more empty folders; we're not sure why they weren't included in the original scan. There's no Help file, so if there's an answer to that question, we don't know what it is. Overall, FMS Empty Folder Remover seemed to work, but those who aren't comfortable making decisions about what should stay and what should go might want to look for something a little more foolproof.

FMS Empty Folder Remover installs politely but, ironically, leaves a folder behind upon removal.