Broken: Recycling Bin message

Haha. Broken on the grammatical side too! Items who is? Plus, what does Yes to All do? Delete all the files *whose names are* too long? Cause it looks like you're deleting the folder in its entirety, aka as one item...which is kind of confusing?
Windows makes me laugh...I love my OS X.

That's just Microsoft's punishment for users who use so deeply-nested folder structures and/or long names that no-one can properly handle them anymore, anyway. :->

That's what MS gets for slapping GUIDs onto file names.
And Emily, "Yes to All" means Yes to all similar questions.

I've always thought the name 'Recycle Bin' is in itself broken. You're not turning the things in the bin into something else; you're holding them there until you are ready to do away with them permanently. That is not a recycling bin, but a trash can. (That's what it's called on that other operating system...)

Michael: so when you delete files on your computer, the hard drive space isn't going to be reused for new files? Crud, you must go through hard drives like mad.

But, yeah, it's pretty bad for the operating system to let you create files with certain names, and then punish you for actually doing it.

The recycle bin is not inapt in its naming. One is recycling the files back into unused disk space available use for another file.

As for the error message, the broken grammar is funny, but the fact that it coughs and gags on its own file names is poor.

witeowl, Carlos: for most users, the primary purpose of the trash can is to get rid of unwanted files (to trash or delete them), not to recycle disk space. Don't believe me? Ask a user why they are putting files in the recycle bin. Unless they are low on disk space, I'll bet they'll tell you they are deleting or trashing it.

(As an aside, I asked two Windows users who sit next to me to name the place on their machine where they put files they don't want...they both said the "trash can." Neither of them had ever noticed it was called the Recycle Bin, and both said they didn't quite know why it was called that when I pointed it out. Always good to get the user's perspective. I asked them if they thought they were recycling disk space, and they stared at me blankly.)

Michael has a good point about the naming of the recycle bin. The mental framework for its use is that of throwing something away (deleting), rather than recycling of a resource (disk space).

So the recycle bin is a much poorer name than trash can.

My real point was that criticizing the name is nit-picky. My first Commodore 64 had nothing to do with the military; folders are actually directories; deleting actually doesn't delete anything (it just erases a couple of markers and makes the file as overwritable). Chances are that MS chose the term "recycling bin" because they still wanted to pretend that Windows wasn't a direct rip-off of the Mac GUI.

If you had asked me where I put computer files I don't want anymore, I would have stared at you blankly and responded that I don't put them anywhere; I delete them.

That's the solution: When I build my own OS, it'll be a not-quite-deleted-yet-click-here-when-you're-sure-box.

Windows limits the size of a file or folder name to 255 characters. Why? Because its file system cannot handle files or folders with longer names (not that anyone would want a file or folder with that long of a name).

I would assume this file was not created by the user, as Windows would not allow anything about 255 characters. It was probably created by some badly coded installer or downloaded from a computer with another OS that supports longer names.

Once you get one of those files on your system, they can be a pain. I had one before (downloaded), and I could not delete it. I could not move the file to another folder. I couldn't even rename the file to something shorter! In the end, I had to delete the folder conatining the file to get rid of it (apparently, on this poster's computer, that didn't work either).

I'm fairly certain Windows won't let you create a file name too long for the recycle bin, but it should have a way of handling files with long names from other operating systems (like automatically shortening the name or something).

BTW, why did the poster have a folder named "folder" on his PC?

Unless you're on Tech Support, this doesn't need to be gone-into!!!
Anyway, this IS broken! The "too-long file names" are most of it.

Verdict: BROKEN!

I can't be the only one who can't remember the last time he used the 'Recycle Bin' at all. If I want to delete something, I delete it properly (Shift+Del), but that only ever happens when clearing stuff that's already been backed up to another disk (DVD, etc).

Generally I don't have files that need to be deleted for some content-based reason - surely it is worth retaining almost all files (photos, documents, music) for archival purposes? What sort of files are people deleting?

"My real point was that criticizing the name is nit-picky."

Yes, and good design is nit-picky, too :)

Oh BTW, sorry to spoil everyone's bubble, but there is no grammar error! By saying do you want to delete "it" permanently, it is referring to the single folder, not the files with in. So it shouldn't say do you want to delete "them", it should say just as it does!

The grammar error is "whose name is". Should be "whose names are".

HEY!! It's like this -- someone made the folder really high up on the file system (say, C:\Folder\(whatever the file was)) and then gave the file a really long name... and since Windows only allows 255 characters, including the drive description.. so, after 'C:\Folder\'and '.(let's use exe) he has 241 letters to make the name. When he moved it to the recycle bin, that's actually a place. under more directories. and that means that when he used those 241 letters, the computer tried to add the letters in of the directory (aka the recycle bin) the file was being sent to and all that wouldn't fit. So the computer popped that up. Everyone knows what it means by permanently delete it (as opposed to SAVING it in the recycle bin, for those of you who STILL aren't with the program) and as for the Yes to All, that means that if this comes up again (another long name) then it automatically says yes. And as was mentioned earlier, the grammar is fine..
You'd think that they'd have enough cash to hire someone to check that right?
{I just wanted to compile some of the above arguments}

If Christopher's analysis is correct, then this message should say, "If you put this file in the recycle bin, it will be permanently deleted and you will not be able to retrieve it. Do you wish to continue? Yes / No."

Of course, a help button which explained why this happened would be helpful: "Our OS allowed you to give a file a name that means it can't be moved. If you wish to move the file, shorten its name."

But, Christopher: the grammar error stands: "items whose name it"; it should read, "items whose names are"

The Recycle Bin has two tasks: a) Emptying the Recycle Bin b) Restoring any or all the deleted items. Is a dumpster behind a grocery store, Burger King, K-Mart or Walmart used for both getting rid of trash and getting back if you change your mind? No, I would not recover hamburgers, left over foods,from a MacDonald dumpster,would u? Therefore, the term Recycle Bin is appropriate.You can use it to delete file X or Y from the desktop or document folder.Place it in the Recycle Bin;should you,however, realize that one of the files u deleted had important information, then u can restore it.