How to remove (delete) Eclipse workspaces

How to remove (delete) Eclipse workspaces.

Approch 1:

Its possible to remove the workspace in eclipse without much complications. The options are available under Preferences->General->Startup and Shutdown->Workspaces.

Approach 2:

Eclipse is my favorite Java IDE. To manage projects Eclipse uses ‘Workspaces’. Workspace is basically a folder on your disk where your project files are stored. To work on a project you load its workspace in Eclipse. Eclipse remembers the workspaces you worked on previously. A drop down list of all (configurable) previous workspaces is displayed when you want to switch workspace. This is pretty good except for one little annoyance. Eclipse presents all previous workspaces even if you have deleted the project folder from the disk. All those deleted workspaces only clutter the list. But there is a very easy way to clean up the list. All you have to do is to edit org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs file.

This file is located underconfiguration/.setting directory under your eclipse installation directory. For e.g. if you have Eclipse installed under C:\ides\eclipse the file will be under C:\ides\eclipse\configuration\.settings.

Open the file in your favorite text editor (likePNP).
You will see a line for RECENT_WORKSPACES. Edit this line and delete the entries for the workspaces you no longer need.

For instance I have following line in my file.RECENT_WORKSPACES=C\:\\DevProjects\\LoginTutorial\nC\:\\DevProjects\\SpringEx\nC\:\\DevProjects\\JavaEncryption\nC\:\\DevProjects\\GoogleApps

All these projects are included in the drop down list. To remove GoogleApps workspace all I need is to delete it form this line. So the line will become

RECENT_WORKSPACES=C\:\\DevProjects\\LoginTutorial\nC\:\\DevProjects\\SpringEx\nC\:\\DevProjects\\JavaEncryption

Save the file and exit the editor. Next time you will start Eclipse you will not see the deleted workspace(s).

In this file there is another line for MAX_RECENT_WORKSPACES. By default it is to set to 5. You can change this value to be a lower/greater number if you so desire.