The most common way to delete a file in Windows is to use the File Explorer or My Computer application, which is located on the Windows Start Menu.
Open File Explorer or My Computer depending on your version of Windows
Find the file you want to delete by browsing the directory structure and double click it to open.
Alternatively, you can right-click on the file and select Delete from the menu.
Windows will prompt you with a window that asks if you are sure you want to delete the file. Click Yes to delete the file or No to cancel the delete operation.
If you select Yes, all references to the file will be removed from the system and the file will be deleted from the hard drive.
It is important to note that deleted files are not actually removed from the hard drive. They are still stored on the hard drive, but the references to the files have been removed from the operating system’s directories.
To permanently remove a file from the hard drive, you will need to use a file shredding program such as Eraser. File shredding programs overwrite the data on the hard drive so that it is irretrievable, ensuring the data is unrecoverable even if someone attempts to recover the file using specialized data recovery software.
It is also important to note that deleting files from removable media such as USB flash drives, CDs, and DVDs is slightly different. To delete files from removable media, simply right-click the file and select Delete from the menu. However, deleting files from removable media does not actually remove the files from the device, it simply removes the references to the files so that the operating system no longer sees them. To actually remove the files from the device, you will need to use a file shredding program such as Eraser.