Question: I just pressed `Delete` on a file on one of my drives. It surprisingly didn't ask me whether I really wanted to move it to the trash bin, but just did it instantly. This is new behaviour, no? I have certainly not made any such changes.

Just to make sure, I tried several times on my desktop, with both a text document and a directory. Same thing. Just immediately blasted to the trash can. Very scary when I've been relying on the question to prevent me from deleting data by accident since... um... Windows 95?

I noticed an update to Windows 10 the other day. Was this changed in it? If so, *why*?!

Answer: 
Windows Update is capable of changing settings without prior notice.

If this setting was changed, here are the places to look, where this
confirmation could have been disabled.

* Right-click the Recycle Bin, select Properties and verify that
"Display delete confirmation dialog" is set.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZLyr2.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZLyr2.png)
* Run `gpedit.msc` and navigate to  

`User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\File Explorer`.  

Verify the setting of the policy named
"Display confirmation dialog when deleting files".

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tQPDr.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/tQPDr.png)
* Run `regedit` and navigate to the key  

`HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer`.
Right-click the right pane, select *New > DWORD (32-bit) Value*
and name this as `ConfirmFileDelete`.
The value data should be `1` to enable.

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jjZiA.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jjZiA.png)

Reference (and source of the images):
[How to Enable or Disable Delete Confirmation Dialog on Windows 10?](https://appuals.com/enable-or-disable-delete-confirmation-dialog-on-windows-10/)
Not sure about other folks, but for all of my windows machines the initial default setting has always been with no confirmation prompt if "deleting" a file i.e. moving to the Recycle Bin. The prompt can be turned on in the Recycle Bin properties.
But I do always see a prompt for confirming if I select a file and press SHIFT+DEL to delete it permanently. Not sure if there is a setting to change that somewhere. But it is good to have it on all the time.
For moving files to the Recycle Bin, not sure if it is really necessary to have the prompt for confirming turned on - it just adds another step. If you move something accidently to the Recycle Bin you can always restore it to the original folder.