How to Enable Delete Confirmation Dialog Box in Windows 8 and 8.1?

How to Enable Delete Confirmation Dialog Box in Windows 8 and 8.1?

In previous Windows versions, whenever you delete a file or folder, Windows asks for your confirmation before moving it to Recycle Bin but Microsoft has removed this confirmation dialog from Windows 8. In Windows 8 as soon as you press the "Delete" key, the selected file or folder is automatically deleted and moved to Recycle Bin without any confirmation prompt.

Many Windows 8 users like this move but there are some other people who are not liking this step. They want to bring back the delete confirmation dialog in Windows 8.

If you also want to re-enable delete confirmation dialog in Windows 8, following steps will help you:

1. Right-click on Recycle Bin icon on Desktop and select Properties.

2. Now enable "Display delete confirmation dialog" option and apply the changes.

3. That's it. It'll re-enable the confirmation dialog box and now Windows will always ask for your confirmation before moving a file or folder to Recycle Bin.

UPDATE: If the option "Display delete confirmation dialog" is grayed out in Windows, In other words, the option is disabled and can't be enabled by users. In such case, it might be possible that the option was disabled by the Administrator or other users intentionally or accidentally using Group Policy or Windows Registry. If you are facing similar problem, you can enable or disable this option using group policy or Registry as mentioned in following steps:

Turn Delete Confirmation Prompt On / Off Using Group Policy Editor

1. Press "WIN+R" key combination to launch RUN dialog box, then type gpedit.msc and press Enter. It'll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now go to:

User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer / File Explorer

3. In right-side pane, double-click on "Display confirmation dialog when deleting files" option and set its value to "Enabled" to enable the confirmation dialog box or set it to "Disabled" to disable confirmation dialog box.

Turn Delete Confirmation Prompt On / Off Using Registry Editor

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

3. In right-side pane, create a new DWORD ConfirmFileDelete and set its value to 1 to enable confirmation dialog box or set it to 0 to disable confirmation dialog box.

Simple, isn't it? So do you also want the confirmation dialog back or happy with no confirmation prompt?