You’ve read that email message and you’re through with
it. So, you hit the “Delete" key and
it’s gone. Or is it?
In Outlook, deleting an email is a two-step process. Hitting that “Delete" key when you’re done with
a message sends it to a folder called “Deleted Items". You might think, “Why not just delete the
message instead?" I can’t speak for
Microsoft, but my guess is due to something called “human error." People will unintentionally delete a message
(or a contact, or a calendar entry, or a task) they meant to keep. If it were permanently deleted, that’d be
it it would be gone, with no way to recover it. Sending the message to a folder called “Deleted Items" means that
if you made a mistake, you can go into that folder and move the deleted item
back into the folder from which you accidentally deleted it.
This does mean that every so often you have to delete the
items in the “Deleted Items" folder.
(I’ve discussed how to do this in other articles posted on
SearchWarp.com.) But if you have a
message (or contact, or calendar entry, or task) you know you’re never going to
want to see again, there’s a very quick way to circumvent the “Deleted Items"
folder and permanently delete the item.
Simply highlight the item you want to delete, and hold down the “Shift"
key while pressing the “Delete" key.
Instead of routing the item to the “Deleted Items" folder, it’s
permanently deleted from Outlook, never to be seen again.
About the author:
Danny Davids has over 25 years of experience in computer support,
network administration, and computer consulting.
