Are you sure you want to delete … ?

Confirmation messages seem to be pretty unique to computers. Have you ever used a coffee machine that did ask you if you really wanted to start making coffee, an iPod if you really wanted to play music ? Computers asks those stupid things all the time. If you ever played a game you noticed that every game, and I really mean every single commercial game that plays in full screen is asking the user if he really wants to leave it after pressing the Exit button.

The same can be said if you want to delete a file in Windows. You mark it, you press Delete and what happens ? You are asked if you really, really want to delete that file or if you made a mistake. Not only that but by default the file goes to the trashbin where you could recover it and even if it would not go there you would still be able to recover it with file recovery tools.

So what’s up with these confirmation messages and computers ? I recently installed a new operating system for a friend and the first thing that I noticed after booting into it was those dreaded are you sure you want to delete the files that you have selected. That message can be deactivated, I suppose most of you do now that already but for those who do not here is the way.

Right-click your Recycle Bin on the desktop and select Properties from the menu. This is also a great way of selecting a proper maximum size for the Recycle Bin. I think Windows reserves 10% for the Recycle Bin by default, might be wrong on that but the number is definitely huge. When the Recycle Bin properties pop up you see a tiny option at the bottom that says "Display Delete Confirmation Dialog".