Remove local user and data from windows 10 using powershell

Question

I’m attempting to remove a local user from a computer (named Deltagare). I need to remove both the account and the files associated with the account inside C:/Users/username. I have issues with getting access denied event when running the script as administrator. The script is run on an administrator account. I have tried to transfer ownership, both by using takeown, icacls and Set-Acl but I still get access denied at Remove-Item

Remove-LocalUser -Name "Deltagare"
# Grant ownership here using takeown, icacls or Set-Acl
Remove-Item -Path "\\?\C:\Users\Deltagare" -Recurse

How do I delete this folder using Powershell? Any ideas on how to take ownership or do I need to remove the user another way?

Answer 1

This is easiest with CIM/WMI, in my opinion. You'll probably want to remove it before removing the user account, however.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_UserProfile |
    Where-Object { $_.LocalPath.EndsWith($UserName) } |
    Remove-CimInstance -WhatIf

Remove the -Whatif parameter to actually remove the profile, of course.

Filtering by the SID is probably even better than filtering by the username in th local path.