Version 8.50 makes deleting with F8 dangerous

[enorog]

The new features in 8.50 are great, but there is one change that prevents me to use TC safely anymore. Since working in TC is really fast, it's possible to quickly delete a large root folder (F8, yes, all).

Until now, I could create a folder like "___safe" (to make sure it's on top when ordering) including a few placeholder files with read-only enabled. This made sure that if I quickly deleted a wrong folder, TC popped up a lot of confirmations first.

With the new functionality in 8.50, TC first deletes all the files and only asks you in the end about the read-only files. I understand how this can be handy when a wayward file would trip your delete operation, but it's much more practical for copying/moving, since deleting is fast anyway. For moving, it's brilliant!

Could you at least enable a wincmd.ini setting to disable this dangerous delete functionality? Or even better, add an internal "protected directories" listing. There has been discussion on this in the forums and some people say "you need backup anyway" - but even with good backup, when working quickly, you can delete a giant root directory like Windows for instance and no backup will help you there.

Since TC is used by a lot of power users, it's common to show all directories and files, even system and protected ones that are usually not included in regular backups. Another reason why at least deleting should be foolproof.

[MVV]

enorog,
AFAIK TC postpones questions only after 5 seconds so first confirmations will be displayed anyway.

You can add additional confirmation by adding ___safe dir to ignore list: TC will additionally ask before deleting something from ignored dir.

[ghisler(Author)]

You can add
VistaDelete=0

to the wincmd.ini to disable the new delete function. Btw, this only affects delete to recycle bin - delete directly always deletes files in order.

[MVV]

ghisler(Author),
He means that because of postponed questions TC may delete something from folder before TC asks for ___safe deletion.

[enorog]

Thank you for your replies.

MVV:
TC 8.01 works well with my "___safe" approach, I have a few subdirectories under "___safe" with a few files in each of them, all set to archive & read-only, so that's enough to trip a lot of extra confirmations. I thought that maybe it's because I'm deleting huge directories and the 5secs didn't come into play, but I tested it now with a small directory and it still works well for protection.

Your idea about ignored directories doesn't work too well, because then I don't see which directories are protected. I've tested it anyway and it doesn't pop up any additional confirmation.

ghisler:
If I understand correctly, the VistaDelete option will only work for deleting to recycle bin ( I have this set to SHIFT+F8 ). This is not an issue, since deleting to recycle bin is safe anyway.

Is there a way to disable this new functionality for regular - direct - delete with F5?

[ghisler(Author)]

Is there a way to disable this new functionality for regular - direct - delete with F5?

This method is NOT used for regular delete with F8/Del!

You write about F5 - this would be cvopying. Do you mean that?

[enorog]

Sorry, that was a typo, I meant F8 of course. To be more specific:

Version 8.50 makes it so, that deleting with regular F8 delete (TC way) removes everything and only asks about protected files in the end. Is there a way to disable this functionality? (version 8.01 stopped right away if there were protected files on top.)

[ghisler(Author)]

F8 uses VistaDelete and deletes to recycle bin. This may be out of order.
Shift+F8 uses regular DeleteFile and does not delete to recycle bin. This never deletes out of order.

So have you tried VistaDelete=0?

[enorog]

Aha, I obviously have this set - under Configuration / Copy/Delete, I have the box "F8/Del deletes to recycle bin" unchecked. I prefer the TC direct deleting.

So I'm asking about the direct delete functionality - this is what has changed with 8.50. It does delete "out of order" now in the sense that it skips the protected files and deletes everything else before asking you in the end about the protected files.

(I did test the VistaDelete=0 option, but it changes nothing for direct delete)

[ghisler(Author)]

I cannot confirm that. When you set VistaDelete=0 (and don't use the Explorer method either), TC stops at the first file it cannot delete - I have just tested it.

[enorog]

I tried retesting everything again and finally caught the problem - it's the directory ordering.

For example "__something" is above numbers and letters ("00project") in the folder list, both in TC and Explorer. Shift+F8 delete doesn't understand it like that. It actually puts it on the bottom for deleting order.

So when I tried with a protected folder - "00protected", it worked as expected - it didn't even need VistaDelete=0.

Am I right in assuming that your delete ordering puts underscore on the bottom in terms of "this is the order in which I will go trough the files and delete them"?

Is there another character that would both display on top of numbers and letters AND be the first for delete ordering? I'm sure underscore used to be on top for deleting, but when I tried it in 8.01 I saw it's on the bottom as well - so it must have been a previous version where I actually had that working...

[HolgerK]

For example "__something" is above numbers and letters ("00project") in the folder list

Sorting in panels (both TC and Explorer) may differ from the default NTFS sorting ("Show-> Unsorted" <Ctrl+F7>).
I doubt that the content of a marked folder or one of his subfolders is sorted by TC before deletion.

Is there another character that would both display on top of numbers and letters AND be the first for delete ordering? I'm sure underscore used to be on top for deleting, but when I tried it in 8.01 I saw it's on the bottom as well - so it must have been a previous version where I actually had that working...

Try <Space> (alt+32) or exclamation mark <!> (alt+33).

Regards
Holger

[enorog]

Thanks for your suggestions. I tried both sortings (Name and Unsorted) and underscore is always on top, but deleted last.

Spacebar and exclamation mark work though - they get deleted first and are on top.


I did some more testing with older versions of TC and it seems underscore was always last when deleting. Most of the time I used "00" for the name of my protection directory, which is why I probably never caught this before. So 8.50 never really changed anything, it just alerted me that I shouldn't count on "_directory" to protect from accidental deletion.

I still think a feature like this would be useful - for instance a file "tcprotect.txt" with a list of full paths to directories that shouldn't be deleted. This is only to protect a specific directory (a "read-only" for the directory, not all files below), if I want to delete something from a subdirectory, it should let me. This would only be used in conjunction with the direct delete - Shift+F8 in the default installation - for those of us that like to live dangerously and avoid Recycle Bin most of the time.

Thank you all for your help.

[HolgerK]

Shift+F8 in the default installation - for those of us that like to live dangerously Cool and avoid Recycle Bin most of the time.

I always use <Shift+Del>.
But this is not very dangerous if you have an external backup, from where you can restore really important files.

Regards
Holger