Windows XP Computer Problems When Deleting Multiple Files

Windows XP allow the user to delete files by using the "delete" button on the keyboard. You simply highlight the file, using the mouse, then press the delete button The file is not really deleted, but rather is sent to the "recycle bin", where it resides until you decide to "empty the recycle bin". It sounds easy and it is when deleting files one at a time.

But if you have a number of files you may want to save time by deleting several files at the same time.The technique suggested by some is to hold down the control button while using the mouse to highlight the files you want to delete. This technique appears to work, but then you discover that it actually creates more work, and wastes more time. What happens is that all the original files are sent to the recycle bin but the program makes a copy of each file. Then when you try to use the same technique to delete these copies you discover it makes another copy of each file.

The answers I found on the internet by the "experts" were not very satisfactory, in that they tend to try to tell you what caused the problem, rather than telling you how to fix it. To get rid of the copies you could go back and delete each file individually (wasting more time). If you try using the "control button holdown" technique, you keep generating more copies and exacerbating the problem.

The answer I came up with after some thought and remembrance of encountering this problem once before was to hold down the shift key rather than the control key, when deleting multiple files. This seems to work and avoids the "extra copies" problem.

You would think that the company that produced this operating system software would have added a "fix" for this problem in their so called "service packs" but so far as I know they have not.