Lynn, ditto to the last two posts. You and your family are in my thoughts and I'm sending as many best wishes your way as possible.

Oh...

So... I'm not going to be around as much as usual over the next couple of months. I've been working on a major project over the past 8 months that...

Anybody here in Houston or its surrounding environs? Are you safe? Is there anything we can do to help?

Not that you may be able to answer if power...

So I'm trying to be evil here and see if there's a way to get around the xp_cmdshell thing using a SQLCMD query window in SSMS. Haven't found anything specific...

There's always (in many environments) an "exceptions process" where one can request an exception for a specific use and then either do as Lynn suggests or leave it on but...

Actually, through SQL Server Agent, you can run a operating system command job step to delete the file using cmd window language (again Del filename).

Here's a