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When deleting a large directory with Shift+Del (no Recycle Bin), it happens an order of magnitude faster. Why is deleting to Recycle Bin so much slower on Windows? I'm on Windows 7.

Edit: Just realized that it's because I'm using Total Commander instead of Windows Explorer. Because I always use that program, I had never noticed that from Windows Explorer deleting a directory to Recycle Bin is instantaneous.

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  • TC has alot of problems that keep me from using it. A lot of cool functionality, but it certainly has some poor code or lack of foresight with some of the odd things it does very badly compared to the explorer.exe Jul 17, 2013 at 11:58
  • @AthomSfere The quick filter is the killer feature that keeps me from using any other file manager. When you type just part of the filename, it will interactively filter only files containing the query, and it can have wildcards, too.
    – sashoalm
    Apr 24, 2014 at 15:08

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In terms of file system, deleting to Recycle Bin is more or less like moving. The files you delete are put into a special protected Windows directory, and potentially the whole data needs to be read and written in a other place.

On the other hand, deleting with Shift+Del, the file is simply erased from the file system. This is mush faster, as it's not about changing the whole file, but only removing the few bytes telling that a file is there.

Plus, concerning Total Commander, as explain here : http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=14480:

This happens when your recycle bin is very full. TC deletes one file after the other in normal mode, which takes a while when the bin is quite full.
Try to delete with Shift+Del (bypassing the bin), or using the Explorer method.
Unfortunately this behaviour cannot be changed, because Windows doesn't report which files were deleted and which not when deleting them all in one operation...

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  • Hi, thanks for answering, but you beat my emergency edit - it seems the problem is with Total Commander (which I use for all file management). When I tried with Windows Explorer, deleting a file was instantaneous. The problem was with Total Commander.
    – sashoalm
    Jul 17, 2013 at 10:07
  • @satuon : yes I saw, you can have a look at this : ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=14480 there are some explanations. But it's still linked to what I wrote.
    – Levans
    Jul 17, 2013 at 10:09
  • OK, thanks, could you edit your question then (or accept my suggested edit), so I can mark it accepted?
    – sashoalm
    Jul 17, 2013 at 13:09
  • satuon, didn't see your comments, apologies for the rollback
    – Tog
    Jul 17, 2013 at 13:24
  • As an extension to this question; Why is it [at times] more time-consuming to Empty the Recycle Bin than it is to Shift+Del?
    – jay_t55
    Jul 17, 2013 at 13:27

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