Expire Files In A Folder: Delete Files After x Days

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We used a combination of a powershell script and a policy. The policy specifies that the user must create a folder inside the Drop_Zone share and then copy whatever files they want into that folder. When the folder gets to be 7 days old (using CreationTime) the powershell script will delete it.

I also added some logging to the powershell script so we could verify it’s operation and turned on shadow copies just to save the completely inept from themselves.

Here is the script without all the logging stuff.

$location = Get-ChildItem \\foo.bar\Drop_Zone
$date = Get-Date
foreach ($item in $location) {
  # Check to see if this is the readme folder
  if($item.PsIsContainer -and $item.Name -ne '_ReadMe') {
    $itemAge = ((Get-Date) - $item.CreationTime).Days
    if($itemAge -gt 7) {
      Remove-Item $item.FullName -recurse -force
    }
  }
  else {
  # must be a file
  # you can check age and delete based on that or just delete regardless
  # because they didn't follow the policy
  }
}

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