New delete behavior?

TBugReporter · 15 Sep 2021

I recently needed to do some cleanup after "uninstalling" a program that apparently didn't want to be uninstalled, and so left files behind after its own uninstall ran. To do this, I opened an Explorer window, navigated to C:\Program Files (x86), selected the folder left behind by the unwanted program, and hit Shift-Delete to permanently condemn it to Hell. To my surprise, I did not get an "Are you sure?" warning; the folder just vanished with not a peep from Windows. Is this a recent change to Windows? (I'm running 20H2.) I tried creating and then deleting a New Folder from the Desktop, and got the same warning as usual; apparently, counterintuitively, only deleting from Program Files seems to bypass the warning - a place where (I would think) the warning would be more appropriate. Does anybody know how to activate the Shift-Delete warning (without also activating the unshifted Delete warning) for all folders on the hard drive?

dalchina · 15 Sep 2021

I just had to do some cleanup after "uninstalling" a program that apparently didn't want to be uninstalled, and so left files behind after its own uninstall ran.

Next time you encounter a failed uninstall like that, and don't have a Pro 3rd party uninstaller tool, try e.g. the forced uninstall mode 'Custom uninstall' of (free) Wise Uninstaller.

This allows you, like Revo Pro, say, to browse to an exe or folder remaining and then the program scans for related remnants, including files, folders, registry.

Better: start any uninstall from a 3rd party uninstaller, which first runs the standard uninstall sequence, so even if the normal uninstall fails, the program then scans for and allows you to remove what's found. Very often this scan, run after the standard uninstall has completed, finds remnants- all depends how carefull the author has been in configuring the uninstall.

TBugReporter · 15 Sep 2021

Thank you for your response, but it fails to address the questions that I actually asked. (I understand that answering a question that a person may be too inexperienced to ask for himself is sometimes warranted on these forums, but in my case it is not. Don't let the column to the left ["Junior Member", "Joined : Jun 2021", "Posts : 4"] fool you.)

tomdsr · 15 Sep 2021

TBugReporter said:

Thank you for your response, but it fails to address the questions that I actually asked. (I understand that answering a question that a person may be too inexperienced to ask for himself is sometimes warranted on these forums, but in my case it is not. Don't let the column to the left ["Junior Member", "Joined : Jun 2021", "Posts : 4"] fool you.)

Check if an update changed the settings. Right click on recycle bin, is the box for delete confirmation checked?

dalchina · 15 Sep 2021

TBugReporter said:

Thank you for your response, but it fails to address the questions that I actually asked. (I understand that answering a question that a person may be too inexperienced to ask for himself is sometimes warranted on these forums, but in my case it is not. Don't let the column to the left ["Junior Member", "Joined : Jun 2021", "Posts : 4"] fool you.)

That's because I had no comment to make on the main focus of your question.

TBugReporter · 15 Sep 2021

tomdsr said:

Check if an update changed the settings. Right click on recycle bin, is the box for delete confirmation checked?

No, but I normally keep that off. I tried checking it, but I still get no warnings, whether I hit Delete or Shift-Delete from within C:\Program Files (x86) [or C:\Program Files].