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I‘ve mentioned previously how to remove the Recycle Bin from your desktop, and how to restore it. Now lets take a look a bit further into how the Recycle Bin works, and at some of the ways you can reconfigure how it behaves.
First, a simple one. If you don’t like the name Recycle Bin, simply right-click the icon and choose Rename. You can type in the name you’d like, and press Enter when you are done.
By default when you delete a file it goes to the Recycle Bin, which is like a waiting room for files you don’t want. Note that files deleted from a network share don’t go to your Recycle Bin, they are deleted immediately (the RC1 version of Vista added the ability to send network files to the Recycle Bin, but the feature was removed in RC2). The main benefit of having the Recycle Bin is that you get the opportunity to undelete your files. To give this a try, double-click your Recycle Bin icon and inside you’ll see files that you’ve deleted. Right-click on any file and in the menu that pops up you’ll see the option to Restore, which as the name suggests, would restore your file back to it’s original location.
If you want to get rid of those files for good, right-click on your Recycle Bin icon and choose Empty Recycle Bin. You will be asked if you are sure before it deletes the files within for real.
What if you don’t want your files to go to the Recycle Bin? If you’d prefer them to be deleted immediately, their is an option for this. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon and choose Properties from the menu. This will give you the Recycle Bin Properties window.
Notice in this window, you get a few options. One of them is Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted. Choose this and you’ll never have to empty the Recycle Bin again, but you also won’t have the option to restore a file you accidentally deleted. If you hate having to confirm that you would like to delete a file, uncheck the Display delete confirmation dialog and files that you delete will either immediately move to the Recycle Bin, or immediately get deleted.
If you need to free up some disk space, one option is to lower the amount of space that the Recycle Bin reserves. By default I’ve read that it’s 10% of each disk (you can see this by clicking on your Recycle Bin Locations in the Recycle Bin Properties window and looking at the Maximum size setting), but only my C: drive settings reflect that. Lower that number on any of the drives you choose to free up that space. Note that if your disk gets to full, you will be prompted by the Cleanup Wizard to empty the trash, which would free up some of this space as well.
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Comments
jhay
Jan 12, 2007 at 10:33 pm
nice touch with the Cutline theme. Btw, have you checked with the AdSense team about the new graphics you use with your Ads?
They’re pretty neat, but it makes me worry.
jpfieber
Jan 13, 2007 at 1:38 am
Thanks, I was quite impressed with the Cutline theme when I found it, so I based both of my sites on it (http://sojoe.info also), and of course give credit in the footer as is well due. I haven’t specifically asked Google about the graphics, but they specifically allude to not deceiving the viewer, which this graphic doesn’t do, so I believe I’m well in the spirit of the TOS.
30 Tips for Getting More (or Less) Out of Windows Vista | ITsVISTA
Jan 31, 2007 at 9:26 am
[...] Other Vista Recycle Bin Options [...]
Chaitanya Shah
Feb 15, 2007 at 6:50 am
It’s very helpful to me in understanding recycle functioning in vista. My problem is have api inside vista for recycle bin is chaged?
I am developere and i have to programmeticaly collect information of recycle bin.I would like to know what is difference between windows XP and windows Vista recycle bin internal architecture.
Joe
Feb 15, 2007 at 11:27 am
I’m not a programmer, so I’m afraid I’m not familiar with those technical details.
Shaheen
May 16, 2007 at 4:57 pm
how do you restore files that have already been deleted from recycle bin?
Joe
May 16, 2007 at 7:41 pm
After being deleted from the recycle bin, your chances of recovering the file diminish. At this point you’ll have to use a program like ‘Restoration’ (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html) or ‘Recuva’ (http://www.recuva.com/) (both free file recovery programs). These programs will check all free disk space for the remains of previously deleted files. If you haven’t done much on your computer since deleting the file, there is a good chance of recovering the file. If you’ve done a lot of downloading, it’s possible a new file has been written over the space that previously held your file. Good luck!
Tom
Jan 15, 2008 at 12:06 am
Now that I have practiced removing and restoring my recycle bin, I have a problem. The recycle bin no longer automatically shows empty or full and contents come and go. In other works, I have an empty recycle bin icon. I delete a file that goes to the recycle bin. I click on the recycle bin and sure enough, there are files in it. But the icon still shows empty. If I remove and restore the recycle bin icon, the icon now switches to full because there are files in it. So, I delete the files and the recycle bin still shows full with no files in it. If I remove and restore it shows empty. How do I restore the AUTOMATIC feature of the recycle bin?
Tom
Jan 15, 2008 at 12:27 am
Okay, the answer is in tip 42. Tedious, but it works.
Joe Lazar
May 17, 2008 at 8:35 pm
My recycle bin is said to be corrupted. It does not work. What can I do to uncorrupt it?
Joe Lazar
May 17, 2008 at 8:36 pm
how to correct a corrupted recylce bin
Lol
Oct 7, 2008 at 4:23 am
You mumma
AJ
Jan 2, 2009 at 8:22 am
This doesn’t really ‘take a look at how the recycle bin works’ just tells you how to change some bog standard options… I’d like to know how to access the recycle bin using the command line or script etc useful for beginners though!
Ciar
Apr 19, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Can anyone help with restoring items from the recycle bin back to their location which has admin protection? are there any dos commands I can use (running as administrator) to restore the files? thanks
Undelete Files
Sep 20, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Great post, i stumbled onto your site and really enjoy the posts. Keep em coming.
~ greg
Bob Eldridge
Jan 22, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Like your site very much.
Perhaps you could tell me where to find the icon file for the Recycle Bin in Vista, and can I use it in XP??
Cheers
Bob
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