1

When using command prompt or Powershell and the Remove-Item, del, or RD, why don't the items you delete end up in the recycle bin?

Improve this question
2
  • For a solution on how to use Powershell to move an item to the Recycle Bin, see stackoverflow.com/questions/502002/…
    – davidmneedham
    Jan 25, 2018 at 17:59
  • @davidmneedham - Please read the question (again). The author wants to know the reason the deletion of the specific file or folder is permanent and bypasses the recycle bin
    – Ramhound
    Jan 25, 2018 at 18:01

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

Long-story short... because backwards-compatibility.

Essentially, del ("rmdir", etc...) is a low-level function that must always work reliably. If you're attempting to recover a system and the disk is 100% full... moving files to a recycle-bin won't assist you in recovering your machine. Similarly, there isn't always a user logged in a machine when del is executed. Which recycle-bin should it go to? Additionally, developers through generations of time have relied on the simple fact that del permanently removes files. Changing this behavior would force nearly every software-development company to re-evaluate nearly every product they've ever built to ensure the correct behavior is maintained, or re-write to accommodate the change.

There are 3rd-part tools that implement some additional commands in a command-prompt such-as "recycle" to move to recycling bin... etc..., but this requires you install something else to add this functionality.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.