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date 11.Nov.2012

■ Please stop these delete confirmations

As you are working with your files, your two year old daughter starts banging randomly on your keyboard, and she hits on the <DEL> key accidentally — a more likely scenario than her typing Homer's Iliad. In situations like that you will be glad that windows pops up a delete confirmation dialog instead of deleting the important files immediately.

If you just hate these delete confirmations keep in mind that it is a small price to pay which may one day avert a major catastrophe. You may argue that you don't even bother to read them and just dismiss them automatically, but at least you get one last chance.

There are two variations of the delete confirmation dialog (see the picture) — three if you count xplorer² own robust delete confirmation. It all depends whether the deleted files are going in the recycle bin or not. If you delete files from your local hard disk then they are going in the bin, where they can be restored in case of an accident. If you delete from a location that doesn't support the recycle bin (e.g. a network folder or a USB stick), you get a more severe warning for the pending permanent deletion. Unfortunately the two versions of the confirmation don't look all that different; there's just a different icon and a small change in the wording.

You can turn off the "mild" version of this confirmation for files that are headed to the (recoverable) bin. Just right click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, pick Properties from the context menu, then you can turn off the confirmation using the relevant checkbox. As for the permanent deletion confirmation dialog (when you press <SHIFT+DEL>), that cannot be turned off. You may curse at me on a daily basis, but one day you will be glad that this barrier exists.
variety of delete confirmations
Remember that even if you end up deleting important documents, there is a way to get them back if you act quickly.

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