13th February 2002
This tip, while relatively remedial, serves as a good reminder for everyone. You don't dare throw away recyclable materials in my house. Gretchen will give you a death stare to end all death stares. Microsoft wasn't necessarily being politically correct when they decided to name the virtual trash receptacle the Recycle Bin. It's no secret that the data sitting in there isn't deleted. Heck, even when you "empty" it, the data may still be sitting on your drive (pick up the free "Eraser" from TOLVANEN.COM to fix this oversight). Turning off the delete confirmation dialog is one of the first things I do when I reinstall Windows. When I know I'll never need to restore the file, I'll hold down the SHIFT key as I delete it. This will enable me to bypass the Recycle Bin entirely. In Windows XP, I have the Recycle Bin view set to Arrange Icons By | Date Deleted with the "Show in Groups" option turned on. This sorts the files by Today, Yesterday, Last week, Two weeks ago, Earlier this month, Last month, etc. This is probably the single-largest unused (and overlooked) feature of the Windows XP Explorer.