• You empty the Recycle Bin yourself, getting rid of its contents for good, by right-clicking its icon and choosing Empty Recycle Bin.
• You open the Recycle Bin folder and delete that particular file or folder from it, again getting rid of that item for good.
• The file or folder has been in the Recycle Bin so long that Windows itself gets rid of it to make space for more recently-deleted items.
That gives you a very useful safety net for anything you find you’ve deleted by accident: you can nip into the Bin to retrieve it. Of course, anyone else using your computer could just as easily nip into the Bin to retrieve things you deleted on purpose!
If you want to delete a private file and be sure that no casual snooper could recover it, you can use one of the following methods to prevent the file from going into the Recycle Bin:
• Right-click the file, then hold down the Shift key as you click Delete.
• Select the file and then press Shift+Delete rather than pressing the Delete key by itself.
Since the file won’t be recoverable after doing this (other than by using fairly specialised disk-analysis software), Windows will always ask if you’re sure you want to permanently delete it. Think carefully before saying ‘Yes’, as it would be terrible to discover later that you’ve done this to the wrong file!
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