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I just pressed Delete on a file on one of my drives. It surprisingly didn't ask me whether I really wanted to move it to the trash bin, but just did it instantly. This is new behaviour, no? I have certainly not made any such changes.

Just to make sure, I tried several times on my desktop, with both a text document and a directory. Same thing. Just immediately blasted to the trash can. Very scary when I've been relying on the question to prevent me from deleting data by accident since... um... Windows 95?

I noticed an update to Windows 10 the other day. Was this changed in it? If so, why?!

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    No It's an option in Recycle Bin's properties. There is no point prompting if you are only moving the filename (the name is moved not the file's contents). You can press Ctrl + Z to undo.
    – user1644677
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 3:18
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    "I've been relying on the question to prevent me from deleting data by accident […]" - I don't get this. That dialog contained no useful details that would help you decide if the right files were selected except for the file count. Can you please clarify how it was useful for you?
    – gronostaj
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 9:10
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    @gronostaj I guess he means "pressing DEL by accident and being able to cancel deletion in the dialog box"
    – Josh Part
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 15:39
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    It will if it is a flash drive.
    – Moab
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 18:34
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    @MMM Most definitely not as that was the behaviour I had on my work laptop cleaning up some large simulation files. - Once the recylcing bin is full, delete = delete from disk right away without any warning.
    – DetlevCM
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 14:37

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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This is new behaviour, no?

Well, it's new behaviour since Windows 8.0.

I went through my collection of Mostly Legitimate Windows ISOs and installed all of them.

The option to enable/disable confirmations when sending files to Recycle Bin has been available ever since Windows 95 introduced the feature in general, but it was enabled by default up until Windows 7 (I tried SP1). However, fresh installations of Windows 8.0 and all later versions (8.1 all the way to 10.21H2) have the confirm prompt disabled by default.

Permanent deletion with Shift+Del or files too large for the Recycle Bin will still result in a confirmation dialog regardless of this setting. (Though oddly, if the entire Recycle Bin is manually turned off, prompts still remain disabled even though deletion is now permanent...)

Screenshot of the "Recycle Bin Properties" dialog in Windows 95, with the "Display delete confirmation dialog" option checked The same on Windows XP The same on Windows Vista The same on Windows 7 The same on Windows 8.0, now with the option unchecked The same on Windows 8.1 The same on Windows 10.1709 The same on Windows 10.21H2

Modern UI design seems to avoid confirm prompts for actions that are easily undone (e.g. restoring from Recycle Bin), so that when a confirmation dialog does show up, it actually means something important – and isn't as likely to get dismissed without even looking (alert fatigue).

For example, if the user gets prompted for all recycled files and habitually click "Yes", they're likely to never notice that sometimes the dialog says "File is too large for Recycle Bin, do you want to permanently delete it".

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    For the sake of completeness: Windows 8 was released on August 1, 2012
    – gronostaj
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 9:14
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    +1 for the dedication of completing all those installs just for screen shots.
    – Criggie
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 11:19
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    You wrote "Modern UI design seems to avoid confirm prompts for actions that are easily undone". But you also said that if Recycle Bin is turned off then there is no prompt. Totally inconsistent UI design, no?
    – user21820
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 19:26
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    @user21820 I assume a user who deliberately goes out of their way to outright DISABLE Recycling Bin most likely will not benefit from a confirmation box. On Linux you can readily perform sudo rm -rf / to wipe your drive and it isn't going to ask you anything. It's sort of the similar idea I guess.
    – Nelson
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 2:56
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    @Nye just add an asterisk at the end...
    – Ruslan
    Commented Feb 16, 2022 at 12:48
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Windows Update is capable of changing settings without prior notice.

If this setting was changed, here are the places to look, where this confirmation could have been disabled.

  • Right-click the Recycle Bin, select Properties and verify that "Display delete confirmation dialog" is set.

    enter image description here

  • Run gpedit.msc and navigate to
    User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File Explorer.
    Verify the setting of the policy named "Display confirmation dialog when deleting files".

    enter image description here

  • Run regedit and navigate to the key
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Right-click the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name this as ConfirmFileDelete. The value data should be 1 to enable.

    enter image description here

Reference (and source of the images): How to Enable or Disable Delete Confirmation Dialog on Windows 10?

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    This is the kind of answer I'm actually expecting.
    – iBug
    Commented Feb 17, 2022 at 11:11
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I see the same exact behavior on my machine (19043.1526).

I can only guess that they decided that the dialog was pointless because you can get the files back.

I myself do not find the dialog pointless.. often.. I am like "OH SHOOT! -- WHOOPS -- CANCEL"..

To put the behavior back the way it was, right click on the recycle bin -> Properties -> Check "Display Delete Confirmation Dialog".

Yes, I agree that this was bad to change the default without asking but Microsoft will do what Microsoft does. :P

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    @J... I have a love/hate relationship with Ctrl+Z in the Windows GUI. It's great that it merely exists but holy crap does it suck when you don't know what it's doing. Did I undelete a file? Did I revert a filename somewhere? Did I undo a file copy? A small message like "file XYZ has been moved from the Recycle Bin back to C:\whatever\path" would be a such a tremendous boon. Right now Ctrl+Z is more of a "Is this going to do what I think it will do? If not then I'll have to remember to undo what it did once it gets to undoing what I intended."
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 14:23
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    @J... My problem is I'm not a keyboard pecker and the realization that something needs to be undone isn't discovered till a minimum of 10 actions later.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 14:25
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    @J it undoes the last thing you did that's supported by undo. That's not necessarily the last thing you did. Sometimes it undoes the last thing I did in a much broader context than I expect, too. In Excel I'd expect it to undo the last thing I did in "this workbook", but it undoes the last thing I did in "any of the open workbooks"
    – Carl Kevinson
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 14:46
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    @J... Enjoy, superuser.com/q/809576/259665
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 16:10
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    OMG @MonkeyZeus !! You created a party in my answer comment section! :) !! CTRL-Z vs the dialog is that without the dialog, I DONT KNOW that I just deleted something. Perhaps my stupid cat just walked across my keyboard and deleted my PrON.
    – Señor CMasMas
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 17:06
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Not sure about other folks, but for all of my windows machines the initial default setting has always been with no confirmation prompt if "deleting" a file i.e. moving to the Recycle Bin. The prompt can be turned on in the Recycle Bin properties. But I do always see a prompt for confirming if I select a file and press SHIFT+DEL to delete it permanently. Not sure if there is a setting to change that somewhere. But it is good to have it on all the time. For moving files to the Recycle Bin, not sure if it is really necessary to have the prompt for confirming turned on - it just adds another step. If you move something accidently to the Recycle Bin you can always restore it to the original folder.

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  • Of course, in the Recycle bin properties there is another option where you can A) opt for not moving to the Recycle Bin at all. Plus then you can either B) leave the confirmation prompt On or C) turn it off. if you have A and B, then when you DEL you will get a confirmation prompt, and if you SHIFT+DEL you will still get a confirmation prompt. If you have A and C, you will not get a confirmation prompt if you DEL and you will not get the confirmation prompt if you SHIFT+DEL.
    – JSSmith
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 23:03
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    I agree that having the prompt on even for the case of just moving to the Recycle Bin is useful for the case when you may accidently hit delete and something moves to the recycle bin without you realizing it.
    – JSSmith
    Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 23:09

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