How can I delete a symbolic link?

Be very careful.

If you have a symbolic link that is a directory (made with mklink /d) then using del will delete all of the files in the target directory (the directory that the link points to), rather than just the link.

SOLUTION: rmdir on the other hand will only delete the directory link, not what the link points to.

To remove directory symbolic links created with mklink /d it is safe to delete the symbolic link in windows explorer.

For a symlink to a file, use del. For a symlink to a directory made with mklink /d, use rmdir.