How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell

So you want to determine if a folder or file exists with PowerShell? You can invoke the same scripting object you might remember from VB....

#set a var for the folder you are looking for
$folderPath = 'C:\Temp\'

#instantiate the FileSystemObject
$objFSO = New-Object -ComObject Scripting.FileSystemObject

#check to see if it is missing
if($objFSO.FileExists($folderPath -eq $FALSE))
{
     echo "The folder does not exist."
    exit
}
else
{
    echo "The folder exists."
    exit
}

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posted on Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:47 AM

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# re: How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell 8/6/2008 11:32 AM Lance

A much easier way is the built-in test-path cmdlet:

if (test-path $mypath)
{
echo "The folder exists"
}

# re: How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell 2/10/2010 4:02 AM Simon

test-path will return true for both files and directories, so you cannot tell the difference

# re: How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell 9/2/2010 4:46 PM Abel

Just use the -PathType options to specify folders (containers) and not a file (leaf).

Test-Path -PathType Container $pathToFolder

# re: How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell 5/19/2011 10:48 AM NP

It is not more useful to do so with Powershell 2.

Just use 'test-path' with file or folder

# re: How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell 6/17/2011 10:22 AM Zhaph - Ben Duguid

Or you can use:

Test-Path C:\Scripts\Archive

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff730955.aspx

# re: How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell 11/29/2011 5:12 PM Matt

Test-Path is much more efficient than using a com object and doesn't require instantiation.

# re: How to tell if Folder Exists of File Exists with PowerShell 1/13/2012 1:31 AM Michael Freidgeim

You should update the post with Lanse suggestion

if (test-path $mypath)
{
echo "The folder exists"
}

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