How to enable the delete confirmation dialogue in Windows

Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft has turned off the delete confirmation dialogue by default. What does this mean? It means that if a person is browsing through their files, selects a single file or a folder full of 100+ photos and accidentally hits the delete key on their keyboard, or their cat walks across the keyboard and hits delete for them, there is no prompt and the file goes straight to the recycle bin.

You might think, well, it's in the recycle bin, I can just restore it? Yes, that's right, if you know it's there.

What if you run an application like CCleaner (just as an example) and it empties the Recycle Bin as part of its cleaning process? Now it's gone, unless you notice it quickly and run some data recovery software to retrieve it.

Fortunately, you can easily turn this option back on. Here's how:

• Right-click on the recycle bin
• Left click on Properties

• Check the "Display delete confirmation dialog" box.

• Finally, click OK.

If you press the Delete button now, you will be asked if you want to delete the file.