How to remove node_modules folder

Since I started using Vagrant and Grunt, my workflow has really improved. But due to a recent hiccup when installing Grunt to an existing (and old) project, I had to remove it and try again. Shouldn’t be a problem , right? That’s what I thought, until I tried to remove the node_modules folder.

As you might have seen, node_modules has an… interesting folder structure. As Windows 8 (and possibly 7) has a limit on the length of filepaths, the folder may not fit into the Recycle Bin and is difficult to delete manually. Luckily, there is a way.

First, install RimRaf:

npm install rimraf -g

Then remove node_modules folder using RimRaf:

rimraf node_modules