- [Instructor] At some point,
you will probably want to delete some files or folders
that you don't need anymore.
I'm going to go to my Documents folder
and I'm ready to delete this Photos folder.
I moved everything I needed from that folder
into my standard Pictures folder.
So one way to delete something is to drag it
to the Recycle Bin on the desktop.
So you can just place your mouse cursor on that item,
hold your mouse button down,
drag it to the Recycle Bin and let go,
and that has been deleted.
Or here's another option.
I'm going to find another folder,
and this project has been canceled,
so I'm ready to delete this folder.
So I'm going to select it, then up at the top,
I can click this Delete button,
or I could right-click on it
and click the delete button there.
And once again, that has been deleted.
Okay, so both of those folders are gone, right?
No, not completely.
In the real world.
If you put something in the trash can or recycle bin,
then change your mind,
you can go back to the trash can and pull it out.
So what if I realized that throwing
one of those folders away was a mistake?
Well, I can double-click on the Recycle Bin to open it up,
and I can see everything that I've placed there.
And if you want it back,
what you could do is just move it to another location.
So I could drag this and I could drag it back
to its original location,
or really I could drag it to any location I want
on my storage drive.
That will pull it out of the Recycle Bin,
and now it's been undeleted.
Another option would be to go to a folder
in the Recycle Bin, right-click on it and choose Restore,
and that will put it back to the location it was in
when you deleted it.
But I don't want to actually do that.
In fact, I do want to delete both of these folders.
So once again,
I'm going to drag this one to the Recycle Bin,
and now they've both been deleted,
but eventually you should empty the Recycle Bin
because it's just sitting there taking up space.
Or maybe you do want to ensure that something
is completely gone.
So what you could do is right-click on the Recycle Bin
and choose Empty Recycle Bin,
or if the Recycle Bin is open in a window,
there will be a button here to empty it from there.
So I'm going to select that,
and now it asks me if I'm sure.
Now keep in mind I'm using demo files for this exercise.
When you deal with your real files,
you should be very careful.
Once you empty the Recycle Bin, those files are gone.
But I'm going to do it here, so I'm going to click Yes,
then I can close this window.
The recycle bin has been emptied
and those files are really gone.
Now later, if you realize that that was a terrible mistake
and you need those files back,
then you've got a big problem.
There are data recovery services out there
that can take your storage drive
and charge you lots of money and can maybe recover files.
There's also some software that you can buy
that might be able to recover files,
but those options are expensive and there are no guarantees.
So please be careful.
Please do not delete something, and empty your Recycle Bin,
unless you are completely sure
that you want those files gone.