rm -rf / deletes everything in its path, including files on hard drives or connected devices.
–rf removes the prompt that asks the user if he really want to delete a file or directory. This command is very dangerous to run because there is no undelete command in Unix, so once deleted, it cannot be recovered.
/ tells rm to start in the root directory, which contains all the files on a computer. Sometimes option 3 is the best in Windows.
I think the code has gotten away from Microsoft and they don’t have a good handle on how to fix it and make it stable. There seem to be too many knee-jerk reactions to serious problems within the code. We’re all on the outside looking in, but I wish some whistleblower in Microsoft would come forward.