Question

what is the simplest way to permanently get rid of an unwanted file ?

Answer 1

Depends on operating system

Answer 2

You use `rm` for linux and `del` for DOS.

Answer 3

neither of those satisfies the 'permanently' specification. files can be recovered very easily after using one of those options, and usually even after multiple formats. The only way to remove a file permanently is to rewrite the sectors the file occupies multiple times. There are some specialty software applications to do that which are fairly easy to use, but if you really REALLY want a quick easy way to permanently get rid of a file, nothing is more sure fire than taking apart the harddrive completely and then physically damaging the disks (assuming not a SSD)