Windows 10: Add Secure Delete to Context Menu in Windows 10

How to: Add Secure Delete to Context Menu in Windows 10

How to Add Secure Delete to Context Menu in Windows 10


When you delete a file or folder in Windows, the item(s) get placed in the Recycle Bin by default until you empty the Recycle Bin to permanently delete them if you didn't want to restore them.

If you permanently delete a file or folder, the item(s) will bypass the Recycle Bin and be immediately permanently deleted instead.

However, permanently deleting a file or folder doesn't secure delete them.

Secure Delete will delete and overwrite a file or folder to securely erase any data that exists in the unallocated portions of a disk for the deleted file or folder so it gone forever and cannot be recovered.

If you like, you can add a Secure Delete context menu that will secure erase selected files and folders.

The Secure Delete context menu will perform 3 passes to securely erase the selected file(s) and/or folder(s). If you would prefer to have more passes, then please post a reply in this tutorial requesting it, and I'll post an updated .reg file for it.

The Secure Delete context menu will not be available when you right click or press and hold on any drive, the C:\Program Files folder, the C:\Program Files (x86) folder, the C:\ProgramData folder, the C:\Users folder, the C:\Windows folder, and the C:\Windows.old folder. This was done by design to prevent deleting these critical Windows system folders by mistake.

You will still be able to use the Secure Delete context menu on files and folders inside the folders above though.

This tutorial will show you how to add Secure Delete to the context menu of files and folders for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

While you must be signed in as an administrator to add or remove the context menu, all users will be able to use the context menu.

The first time you use the context menu, SDelete may prompt you to Agree to the license terms before continuing. You will not see the prompt again afterwards.



CONTENTS:

• Option One: Add "Secure Delete" to Context Menu of Files and Folders
• Option Two: Remove "Secure Delete" from Context Menu of Files and Folders

EXAMPLE: "Secure Delete" context menu









OPTION ONE [/i] Add "Secure Delete" to Context Menu of Files and Folders
1 Download the latest version of SDelete by Mark Russinovich from Microsoft Sysinternals below.
Download
2 Save the SDelete.zip file to your desktop.

3 Unblock the downloaded SDelete.zip file.

4 Open the SDelete.zip file.

5 Open the C:\Windows\System32 folder in a separate File Explorer (Win+E) window.

6 Copy and paste (drag and drop) the sdelete.exe file from the SDelete.zip file into the C:\Windows\System32 folder. (see screenshots below)





7 When prompted, click/tap on Continue to approve. (see screenshot below)



8 You can now close the ZIP and File Explorer windows if you like.

9 Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below.
Add_Secure_Delete_to_context_menu.reg

Download
10. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

11 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

12 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

13 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] Remove "Secure Delete" from Context Menu of Files and Folders
This is the default setting.


1 Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below.
Remove_Secure_Delete_from_context_menu.reg

Download
2 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

3 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

4 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

5 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Add Secure Delete to Recycle Bin Context Menu in Windows 10
• How to Add Permanently Delete to Context Menu in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Empty Folder context menu in Windows 10
• How to Delete a Folder in Windows 10
• How to Delete a File in Windows 10
• How to Use Cipher Command to Overwrite Deleted Data in Windows

:)

 

Add "Secure Delete" to Recycle Bin Context Menu

That may be from this below instead. I'm not sure why it would be on the context menu of anything inside the Recycle Bin though. It shouldn't be.

How are you opening it in your screenshot?

*Arrow Add Secure Delete to Context Menu in Windows 10 | Tutorials

 

How to get rid of old context menus?

I was going to suggest editing teh registry , but....

 

Add "Secure Delete" to Recycle Bin Context Menu

Yup, that's what it is!

The little blue arrow is a QTTabBar jumplist allowing you to expand a folder's contents anywhere...

 

Add "Secure Delete" to Recycle Bin Context Menu

This is interesting:

If I right select a single item (1), by way of a jump list or within the Recycle Bin itself, I can't secure delete it, but, if I right select an item in a folder, (2), in the Bin, I can!

 

Custom context menu entries

So, just throwing this out there, in case somone knows.

I have added a custom context menu entry for the program rightload, since by default the menu is broken in vistax64.

It works pefect with single files, but when I select mutiple files and try to open, I get mutiple instances of the program (which makes sense), here is my entry:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Rightload\Rightload.exe --server=1 --autostart %1

So the %1 passes the filename to the program, and when I select multiple files it is just opening multiple instances of rightload each with a different file.

What I'd like to do is be able to pass a list of the files selected to the program. Since I know it is capable of uploading multiple files from the context menu, all in one instance.

So, is there something I can pass besides %1 that will do this? I have looked around and can't seem to find an answer anywhere... *Frown