How To Enable ‘Delete Confirmation Dialog’ In Windows 8

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With additions like Metro based panels, Start Menu, and Ribbon Explorer, many Windows 8 UI elements have been revamped, such as, the auto run dialog, low battery on-screen notification, desktop snapping, full screen apps, and much more.. Talking of dialog boxes, the most significant improvement that you will notice is with copy/move conflict resolution dialog box, which seems more smart, intuitive and can handle conflicts from a single window. Other noticeable change is that Windows 8 no longer asks you to confirm the deletion of file and folder, i.e when you select a file/folder and hit Delete key, it sends the respective item straight to Recycle Bin without confirming the action. In this post, we will present a simple solution to bring Windows 8 default file/folder delete dialog box back.

First off, right-click Recycle Bin and select Properties. You can also access Recycle Bin Properties from within the Recycle Bin from Recycle Bin Manage tab.

preperties 1

In Recycle Bin Properties dialog, enable Display delete confirmation dialog option and click OK to apply the change.


recycle bin 3

Now when you delete a file or folder, it will ask you to confirm the action before sending the item to Recycle Bin.

delete file 2

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  • BennyBeat

    What happens if I press Shift+Del instead Del key only?
    Thanks!!!

  • DrXakep

    This will remove your file completely, without putting it into Recycle Bin

  • swarfega

    Thanks for this useful titbit. I thought it was dangerous to leave confirmation off by default.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kaishauri Rezo Kaishauri

      I agree. With the silent deletion, even experienced users may delete something accidentally, not even noticing it. And many folks, myself included, have a habit of flushing the recycle bin every now and then, so…

    • nirleka

      wondering why microsoft make no delete confirmation default… so annoying

      • AndrewBingham

        Because a principle of GUI design is – “assume the user knows what they are doing and don’t bother them with unneeded messages unless the action is severe AND irrevocable, OR has consequences the user will not anticipate OR may take considerable time”

        Delete is a rather severe action by the user – but you can the user can undelete by using CTRL-Z, recycle bin etc. So it is not an irrevocable AND severe action.

        Delete has a refinement – if you select “many” files then the chances the user did not actually mean to delete them increases. Also the time take to delete the files increases. So at some point it is reasonable to ask the user to confirm nefored deleting.

        • themaze75

          It is easy to hit the ‘delete’ button on the keyboard by accident. In such a case, you won’t notice that a file has been deleted and by the time you realize what happen, you might not be able to get it back.

          The confirm dialog is not really intrusive – if you know its comming, you can confirm rapidly. If you don’t expect it, you souldn’t have the reflex to confirm.

  • http://www.facebook.com/alikzam Leif David

    By removing the delete confirmation it makes it FEEL like the computer is much faster which is probably why they did it. But what an annoying “feature”… I turned it back on!

  • SPY

    Thanks for the Help

  • shlomi

    Thanks.

  • Cathyreena

    Thanks!

  • wind

    Thanks a lot for the info it really helped

  • http://twitter.com/____timothy Timothy Fritz Cruz

    thank you!

  • jeremy

    thank you for the help.

  • Rajan Yadav

    It’s really terrible that window make no delete confirmation dialogue by default .
    Thanks for useful information.

  • http://profiles.google.com/mylastof Toto Prayogo

    many thanks :)

  • Lam Nguyen

    Windows 8 will ask for confirmation if the file cannot go fit in the recycle bin. Otherwise, even though there’s no confirmation by default, users have a second chance to correct their mistake. More often than not, users do intend to delete the files, so why bother asking every time. Don’t manage to the exception.

    • http://www.facebook.com/rick.dumure Rick Dumure

      I get a confirmation before I delete something and my files go to the recycle no problem.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sahazir Sahazir Hossain

    thnx

  • BuntZ Mehta

    THanks :)

  • http://patwist.com/ Patrik PATWIST Žec

    Thanks for info, It’s very easy. But it’s another thing that may deter users from Windows 8.