Recycle Bin

Similar to the Apple Macintosh Trash, the Recycle Bin is a location where deleted files are temporarily stored onMicrosoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and all later versions of Microsoft Windows. The Recycling Bin allows users to easily recover files that have been deleted in Windows. The image to the right is an example of what the empty Recycle Bin may look like in your version of Windows and can be found on the Desktop.
Keep in mind that if you have deleted files through a MS-DOS prompt or shell that the files will not go to the Recycle Bin.

How do I empty or manage the Windows Recycle Bin?

Question

How do I empty or manage the Windows Recycle Bin?

Answer

By default, Microsoft Windows 95 and above uses 10% of available disk space to save any deleted files in case any file is accidentally deleted it can be recovered from the Recycle Bin. Below is additional information about how to view deleted files, manage the Recycle Bin, and empty the Recycle Bin.

View deleted files

If any file has been deleted in Windows, it is automatically moved to the Recycle Bin. Users can easily identify if files are in the Recycle Bin by looking at the Recycle Bin icon. By default, the icon will look like the icon to the right, an empty Recycle Bin. When files have been deleted, the Recycle Bin will be full of trash.

If the Recycle Bin is full, users can view the files in the Recycle Bin by double-clicking the Recycle Bin icon.

Manage the Recycle Bin

If you wish to modify how much space Windows uses to store deleted files for all drives or independently, you can right-click on the Recycle Bin icon and click Properties. In the Recycle Bin Properties window you can adjust how much space the Recycle Bin takes by dragging the slider left to right, or completely disablethe Recycle Bin feature.

Empty the Recycle Bin

To empty the Recycle Bin, right-click the Recycle Bin icon and click Empty Recycle Bin.

Should I empty the Recycle Bin?

If you feel that none of the files in the Recycle Bin will need to be restored in the future it's recommended you empty the Recycle Bin at your convince.

When should I empty the Recycle Bin?

Anytime you wish to clean the contents of your hard disk drive or when you're running out of disk space it's recommended you empty the Recycle Bin. Otherwise it's fine to leave any deleted items in the Recycle Bin in case they need to be recovered in the future.

How to make files not go to the Recycle Bin in Windows.

Question

How to make files not go to the Recycle Bin in Windows.

Answer

Caution: Following these recommendations will make it much more difficult or impossible to recover a file once deleted.

There are two methods of making files NOT go to the Recycle Bin when deleting them.
Method One

When deleting the file press and hold Shift and then press Delete. This is a great shortcut key for users who may want to keep the option of sending files to the Recycling Bin but not send other files to the Recycling Bin.

Method Two

Following the below steps will disable the feature of sending files to Recycling Bin for all files.

1. Right-click on the Recycle Bin on the desktop.
2. Click Properties.
3. Select the box that says "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted" or "Do not move items to recycling bin once deleted."
4. Click Ok.

Recovering a deleted file from the Windows Recycle Bin.

Question

Recovering a deleted file from the Windows Recycle Bin.

Answer

By default when a file is deleted in Microsoft Windows 95 and higher it's automatically sent to the Windows Recycle Bin in case it needs to be recovered if the file was mistakenly deleted. Below are the simple steps that can be followed to recover those files if they were mistakenly deleted.

1. Get to the Desktop where you can see the Recycle Bin icon. If there is any files in the Recycle Bin the icon should appear with trash in the Bin.
2. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon to open the window displaying all files in the Recycle Bin. If no files are seen skip to the below paragraph.
3. To restore any of the deleted items you can follow any of the below steps.
   
   3a. Highlight the files you wish to restore, right-click the file and select the Restore option. This will restore the file from the original location it was deleted.
   
   3b. Highlight the files you wish to restore, right-click the file and select Cut. Next, explore to the location you wish to move the deleted item to and click Paste.
   
   3c. Drag-and-drop the icons from the Recycle Bin to the folder you wish them to be stored at.

If the Recycle Bin is empty you may have enabled Windows to not send the file to the Recycle Bin or it's more likely that the Recycling bin has already been emptied by you or someone else who uses the computer. If files are seen in the Recycling bin but not an older file you're looking for it's likely that older file has been removed to make room for other deleted files.

What files are not sent to the Windows Recycling Bin?

Question

What files are not sent to the Windows Recycling Bin?

Answer

Files that are stored on a floppy disk drive, flash drives, other removable disk drive, or network drive or files that are deleted from the Windows command prompt (MS-DOS prompt) are not sent to the Windows Recycling Bin.

How do I change the Recycle Bin icon?

Question

How do I change the Recycle Bin icon?

Answer

Windows XP users

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Double-click on Display
3. In the Display Properties window click the Desktop tab
4. Click the Customize Desktop button.
5. In the Desktop Items window select either the "Recycle Bin (full)" or "Recycle Bin (empty)" folder and click the Change Icon button.

Editing through the registry

As mentioned above there are two icons for the Windows Recycle Bin, the empty and full. Below is the Windows Registry path to where you can manually adjust these icons.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SOFTWARE\
Classes\
CLSID\
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\
DefaultIcon

In the DefaultIcon folder, there are two strings.  "Empty" and "Full." Double-click the icon you wish to adjust by double clicking on either of these, and change the Value data to the location of the icon you wish to use.

Unable to empty Windows Recycle Bin because directory is not empty.

Question

Unable to empty Windows Recycle Bin because directory is not empty.

Answer

When attempting to empty the Microsoft Windows Recycle Bin, you may get an error indicating that a directory exists in the Recycling Bin that is not empty even though it may show no files. To resolve this issue try the below suggestions.
Empty the Recycle Bin from Safe Mode

Boot the computer into Windows Safe Mode and open the profile that contains the Recycling bin that cannot be emptied.

In Safe Mode empty the Recycle bin again. If you continue to get the same error, continue with the suggestions below. Otherwise, if emptied, reboot the computer and allow it to boot back into Normal mode.

Run ScanDisk on the computer

If corrupt files exist on the computer, often times they can cause random issues when attempting to delete them. Make sure corrupt files do not exist on the computer by running ScanDisk on the computer.

How can I hide the Windows desktop Recycle Bin icon?

Question

How can I hide the Windows desktop Recycle Bin?

Answer

To hide the Windows Recycle Bin follow the below steps for the version of Windows you're running.

 Before hiding the Windows desktop Recycling Bin icon you may want to make Windows not send files to the Recycling Bin.

Microsoft Windows Vista and 7 users

1. Right-click on the Desktop.
2. Click Personalize.
3. In the Personalize appearance and sounds window click theChange desktop icons link on the left-hand side.
4. Uncheck the Recycle Bin box.

Microsoft Windows XP users

1. Download and install Windows TweakUI.
2. Open TweakUI and click Desktop as shown in the picture to the right.
3. In the Desktop section uncheck the Recycle Bin box
4. Click Ok.