In Windows 10, when you delete a file, the OS doesn’t ask anything and moves the file into Recycle Bin. While it works fine because you always recover it back, if you want a prompt, so there is no accidental removal of the file, you can enable the delete confirmation dialog box in Windows 10.
Enable Delete Confirmation Dialog Box in Windows 10
This feature can be enabled through the Recycle Bin. You can also enable this on multiple computers using Group Policy and Registry keys.
- Enable from Recycle Bin
- Enable using Group Policy
- Enable using Registry
The last two methods can be configured only using an administrator account.
1] Enable from Recycle Bin
Press the Start button and type Recycle Bin. It will display the Recycle Bin App. Click to open it in the Explorer.
Click on the Recycle Bin properties option in the Ribbon menu. Check the box which says—Display delete confirmation dialogue.
Apply the change, and now if you delete a file, Windows will display the delete confirmation dialog box.
2] Enable using Group Policy
Open Group Policy Editor, and navigate to the following path.
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File Explorer
Locate The policy with name—Display confirmation dialog when deleting files. Please enable it. Once done,
a confirmation dialog is displayed when a file is deleted or moved to the Recycle Bin by the user.
If you are using Windows 10 Home, you can install it using this method or use the registry method.
3] Enable using Registry
To follow the registry method, type regedit in the Run prompt (Win +R), and then press the Enter key to open the Registry hive.
Then navigate to the following path.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Here, we will need to create a DWORD(32-bit) key and name it as ConfirmFileDelete. Also, make sure to edit it (double-click) and set the value as 1.
If you don’t want this confirmation for some files, you can always use the SHIFT + Delete keyboard shortcut to delete those files without sending them to recycle bin.
I hope the post was useful, and you were able to enable this option easily. It is a good idea to be careful when changing it using the Registry.
