I made this discovery quite by myself.

I don’t know about you, but after fifteen or so years of endless deleting on my computer, I got tired of the computer asking me every time, “Are you sure you want to delete?” Then it gave me the option of pressing Yes or No. For at least a million times, maybe a billion times, I have said, “Yes, I am sure I want to delete.”

I never once said, “No, I don’t want to.”

How many hours of my valuable time over the years have I spent pressing Yes? Think of what I could have done with all those hours! I wouldn’t have wasted all of them.

Yesterday, I started thinking: “Does the computer really have to keep asking me the same question over and over again? Does the computer have the right to force me to answer a question I don’t want to answer and that it should by now already know the answer to?”

I answered myself: “No, my computer and Microsoft have no right to submit me to this.”

Then, amazingly, it occurred to me that there might be an option and that I, not the computer, was at fault!

All on my own, after fifteen years of struggle, I solved this!

In the event you also are tired of being bothered with having to again and again approve what you already asked to delete, I will show you how to do it! At least, this is how to do it in Microsoft Outlook on my computer.

Go to Inbox.

Go to Tools.

Press Options.

Press Other.

When you Press Other and it opens up, do you see an option to check so you don’t have to okay deleting? No, you don’t because it’s not there. Now this is where you can see how clever I am! Do you see where it says Advanced Options?

Press Advanced Options.

And what is the first option you see?

“Warn before permanently deleting items.”

Eureka! I got it!

I unchecked the box. If the box is checked on your computer, uncheck it, and you will, like me, once again feel in charge of your own destiny.

Microsoft better not tangle with you and me anymore!