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If you have installed and using Windows 8 or the latest Windows 10 operating system, you probably have noticed that your Windows 10 or Windows 8 doesn’t show a delete confirmation dialog with default settings. That is, when you select a file/folder and hit the delete key, Windows doesn’t prompt a confirmation box.

Why turn on the delete confirmation box in Windows?

Although some users might like this new feature as one can easily delete a file or folder quickly and easily, at times, the new feature doesn’t stop users from accidentally deleting a file.

Even though Microsoft has disabled delete confirmation box when deleting a file to the Recycle Bin, you still get the same confirmation box when you try to delete a file permanently using Shift + Delete hotkey.

When the delete confirmation prompt is enabled and working, you will see a confirmation dialog asking “Are you sure you want to move these files to Recycle Bin?” even if you try to move the file to the Recycle Bin. Many users like to see a confirmation box before deleting a file or folder in Windows 10 or Windows 8.

To enable the delete confirmation box in Windows 10 or Windows 8, follow the steps given below.

Enable the delete confirmation box in Windows 10 or Windows 8.1

Step 1: On your Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 desktop, make sure that desktop icons are visible. If not, right-click on the desktop, click View, and then click Show desktop icons to view all desktop icons.

Step 2:Right-click on the Recycle Bin and then select Properties to open Recycle Bin Properties dialog box.

Step 3: Under the General tab, check the option named Display delete confirmation dialog. Click Apply button before closing Recycle Bin Properties dialog box.

From now on, Windows 10 will display a confirmation dialog when you try to delete an item to Recycle Bin. And if you don’t love the default icon used for Recycle Bin in Windows 10, you can easily set a nice looking icon for it by following the easy instructions in our how to change the default icon of Recycle Bin in Windows 10 guide.

Windows has changed quite a lot since its inception, but the presence of the recycle bin feature hasn’t changed much. Recycle Bin in Windows is there for a reason, e.g. to act like a fail-safe, to save us from accidental deletions and other awkward situations. Speaking of Recycle Bin, previous versions of Windows like XP, Vista and 7 used to display a confirmation dialog box whenever you hit the delete button.
But this has changed in Windows 8; your files are moved to Recycle Bin immediately after pressing the delete button, i.e. you won’t see any delete confirmation dialog box. This feature sure is handy because it saves us another step to perform, but as always this feature is prone to more accidental deletions. To make matters worse, you don’t even know the file is deleted unless you specifically search for it.
So, if you don’t like this step taken by Microsoft, here is a simple solution on how you can enable the delete confirmation dialog box in Windows 8.

Enable the Delete Confirmation Dialog Box In Windows 8

1. To enable the delete confirmation dialog box in Windows 8, we need to change one of the Recycle Bin’s properties. To do that, right click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and select “Properties” from the list.
2. Check the box “Display delete confirmation dialog” and click on the “Apply” and “OK” buttons to save the changes.
That’s all there is to do. From now on Windows 8 will display the delete confirmation dialog box whenever you press the delete button to delete a file or folder.
For some users, the check box “Display delete confirmation dialog” may be grayed out, i.e. you can’t check or uncheck the box. If you are facing this problem, here’s the fix:
To enable “Display delete confirmation dialog box” option in Recycle Bin’s properties, there are two ways. One is by using Windows group policy editor (the easiest way), and the other is by adding keys to Windows registry.

Via Group Policy Editor

1. Press “Win + R” and type “gpedit.msc.” Press enter. This action should open Windows group policy editor.
2. Navigate to “User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer -> File Explorer”.
3. Once you are there, find “Display confirmation dialog when deleting files” and double click on it to open it. This action show opens a properties window.
4. Set the value to “Enable” to enable the delete confirmation dialog box and click Apply and OK to save the changes.

Via Registry Editor

1. We can do the same thing as above with Windows registry editor if you can’t access your group policy editor for some reason. To do that, press “Win + R” and type “regedit.” Press enter to open Windows registry editor.
2. Navigate to:
3. On the right pane, create a new DWORD value with the name “ConfirmFileDelete.”
4. By default, the value should be set to “0.” We need to set the value to “1.” To do that, double click on the newly created DWORD and set the value data to “1.” Hit OK to save the changes.
Once you have finished editing, it should look like this.
That’s it. Hope that helps and do share your thoughts using the comments section below.

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Sticky Notes in Windows 10 asks you if you're sure before deleting a sticky note. Unfortunately I disabled this feature by accident. How do I re-enable it?
James JamesJames James

1 Answer

If it is encompassed within the File Explorer delete confirmation, I configure it within the Local Group Policy editor on my Windows 10 Pro machines:
  1. Click on the Start button
  2. Search for gpedit.msc, right-click it and Run as administrator
  3. Navigate to User ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesWindows ComponentsFile Explorer
  4. Enable Display confirmation dialog when deleting files
On the other hand, if you are referring to the capability within Sticky Notes themselves and accidentally checked Don't show this message again when it asked if you were sure you wanted to delete the note, there are methods to regain that functionality.
If you are running Windows 10 Version 1607 (a.k.a. the Anniversary Update), you actually need to reset the application:
  1. Click on the Start button
  2. Select Settings
  3. Select System
  4. Click on Apps & features on the left side
  5. Scroll down the right column and select Sticky Notes
  6. Click on Advanced Options
  1. Click on the Reset button
  1. You will be queried with a confirmation dialog box and another Reset button. (please remember that while this will restore the Sticky Notes delete confirmation, you will lose any data that isn't already backed-up elsewhere)
Finally, if you are running an older version of Windows 10 prior to 1607 (a.k.a. the Anniversary Update), it requires a relatively simple registry change:
  1. Click on the Start button
  2. Search for Regedit and open the Registry Editor
  3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionAppletsStickyNotes
  4. Double-click the PROMPT_ON_DELETE registry entry
  5. In the Value data box, type 1, and click OK
  6. Exit the Registry Editor
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If you want Windows to ask that you confirm the deletion of a file before it’s sent to the Recycle bin / Trash bin then this guide will help you enable the delete confirmation dialog in Windows 10.
1. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and then choose Properties.
2. Check the box saying “Display delete confirmation dialog” (US) or for the UK version of Windows 10 check the box saying “Display delete confirmation dialogue”
That’s it… There is nothing else to do or to say about this subject. I hope this tutorial helped you to enable the delete confirmations in Windows 10. If you need more help then feel free to visit our forums where we will help you personally to solve any questions you might have. Thanks for reading WindowsInstructed!
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By default, MS-DOS and the Microsoft Windows command line will not prompt a user or give a user a prompt or warning when deleting files on a computer using the del command. However, when attempting to delete a directory using the del, deltree, or rmdir command, ensure that it isn't empty or you will receive a warning or error.
Note
When deleting anything from MS-DOS or the Windows command line, it is not sent to the Recycle Bin. Fallout new vegas rudy enb.
File

Deltree command

To suppress the prompting use the deltree command and add the tag /y, as shown in the example below that deletes all files in the Windows temp directory.
Note
The above command does not work in all versions of Windows and MS-DOS.
If this command does not work, we would recommend that you create a batch file with the following command in the batch file.
Once created, you can type the name of the batch file then the name of the directory that you want to delete.

Rd and rmdir command

Users who want to delete a directory containing files in a Windows command line version 2000 or later can also use the rmdir or rd command with the /S option.

Erase command

If you're running a later version of Microsoft Windows and using the Windows command line, you can also use the erase command to delete files without a prompt.

Additional information