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How to Display Delete Confirmation Dialog When Deleting Files

Windows shows a confirmation dialog box when you try to delete a file permanently. Here’s how you can enable or disable it when needed.

To delete a file in Windows, all you have to do is press the delete key. When you do that, Windows will instantly delete the file and moves it to the Recycle Bin. If you want to permanently delete a file or folder you have to press Shift + Delete keys. This skips the moving to the Recycle Bin part and deletes the file or folder irrecoverably. Since the file is being deleted permanently, Windows shows a confirmation dialog box just to be sure.

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This delete confirmation dialog box is enabled by default and appears whenever you want to delete a file or folder permanently. If you want to, you can disable the delete file confirmation dialog box. This is especially helpful if you are confident and don’t want to deal with additional dialog boxes.

Disable Delete Confirmation Dialog Box

The Recycle Bin has a dedicated option to enable or disable permanent delete confirmation dialog box. All you have to do is select a checkbox and you are done.

1. First, go to the desktop, right-click on the “Recycle Bin” and select the “Properties” option.

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2. In the properties window, uncheck the “Display delete confirmation dialog box” checkbox and click on the “Apply” and “Ok” buttons to save changes.

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That is it. From now on, you will not see the delete confirmation dialog box.

Enable it Back:

If you want to enable the confirmation dialog box, just select the checkbox you unchecked in step 2.

(Alternative) via Group Policy Editor

From time to time, even after you uncheck the above option, Windows might still show the delete confirmation dialog box. In those cases, you have to use the Group Policy Editor to disable the dialog box. It is pretty easy.

1. Open the Start menu, search for “Edit Group Policy” and click on the result to open the Group Policy Editor.

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2. After opening the Group Policy Editor, go to the following folder by expanding the folder tree on the left panel.

User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → File Explorer

3. On the right panel, double-click on the “Display confirmation dialog when deleting files” policy.

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4. In the policy properties window, select the “Disabled” option and click on the “Apply” and “Ok” buttons to save policy changes.

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After changing the policy, reboot Windows or execute gpupdate /force command as an admin. This action will apply the policy to the Windows system. Once that is done, you should no longer see the delete confirmation dialog box.

That is it. From now on, you should no longer see the confirmation dialog box.

If you want to enable the dialog box again, open the policy properties window and select “Not configured” or “Enabled” radio option and reboot window.

I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, do check out how to hide the recycle bin on the desktop in Windows.

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