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ITsVISTA Tip 42: Fix Your Broken Recycle Bin Icon in Vista

March 8th, 2007 · 54 Comments · 25,996 views
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TipsAfter posting my tip on how to “Restore Your Vista Recycle Bin Icon“, a number of readers commented on how their icon didn’t work right after restoring it. Even with items in the bin, the icon remains ‘empty’. Well, one of my readers found the fix.

As suggested in the comments section of that post, Sam listed the solution as follows:

  1. Right-click on your desktop and choose Personalize
    Right-click to get Personalize
  2. Click on the Change Desktop Icons link in the upper left hand corner
    Change Desktop Icons
  3. In the Desktop Icons Settings window, click on the Recycle Bin (empty) icon and then click the Change Icon button
    Change Icon
  4. In the Change Icon window, click on the Recycle Bin icon that looks full, probably in the first row, 7th icon from the left, and then click OK
    Change Recycle Icon
  5. Repeat this process by choosing the Recycle Bin (full) icon in the Desktop Icon Settings window, clicking on Change Icon, choosing the icon for the empty Recycle Bin (probably the 7th icon from the left in the second row), and clicking OK
    Change Icon
    Change Recycle Icon
  6. Click the Apply button, and your Recycle Bin icons are now completely backwards. But of course that’s not what you want! Now repeat the process for the empty and full Recycle Bin icons, but put the original icons back with each one. (the full looking icon for the ‘full’, and the empty looking icon for the ‘empty’)
  7. Once you’ve done this, Click OK to exit the Desktop Icon Settings window, and your Recycle Bin icons should start behaving themselves again.

Thanks once again to Sam for contributing the solution for this problem that a few readers were affected by. If it helps you, leave a comment below to show your appreciation as well!

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Comments

  • Vejay

    Mar 9, 2007 at 3:23 pm

    Thanks for the amazing post!

    Very helpful!

  • It Worked! Thank You!

    Mar 12, 2007 at 4:54 pm

    Thanks!

  • It Worked! Thank You!

    Mar 12, 2007 at 4:55 pm

    It Worked! Thank You!

  • Flo

    Mar 13, 2007 at 5:48 pm

    I had the same problem only it was the other way round. It worked fine for me too. Thanks!

  • Carlos

    Mar 19, 2007 at 11:35 am

    Thank you so much. I changed my icons in XP to Vista look and the bin wouldn’t change unless I pressed F5. I tried this exactly and worked fine.

  • EddieWan

    Mar 23, 2007 at 9:27 pm

    Thank you very much. This solution worked wonderfully. Been having this problem every since I accidently deleted my recycle bin and put it back.

  • MARTIN

    Apr 8, 2007 at 12:44 pm

    Thanks for the fix, worked well for me.
    I also found another fix that resolves the same problem.
    I found that if you change the Theme to Windows Classic, click apply, then change back to Windows Vista theme, the problem is resolved.

  • Joe

    Apr 8, 2007 at 2:06 pm

    Thanks, good to know there’s another option.

  • gelöschtes Papierkorb-Symbol wiederherstellen - drvista.de

    May 28, 2007 at 12:05 am

    [...] das hilft vielleicht ITsVISTA Tip 42: Fix Your Broken Recycle Bin Icon in Vista | ITsVISTA [...]

  • Albert

    Jul 12, 2007 at 2:57 pm

    I try everything I Follow all the steps and it didn’t work at all.

  • Kevin

    Aug 8, 2007 at 6:38 pm

    Great isn’t it,you really have to play around to learn how to even find fixes to quirky small problems,just when you think Jeeeeeez, bingo,you find great people out there who allways find a solution to help the rest of us out.
    The difficult bit is knowing where to start to look.
    You just have to keep at it,the more you look,the more you get to understand how to do it.

  • brandon

    Sep 1, 2007 at 9:07 am

    worked great!!

  • sue

    Sep 29, 2007 at 3:16 pm

    Thanks…its worked… Vista is really quirky!

  • michael

    Oct 1, 2007 at 8:18 pm

    That’s just retarded… but whatever, it worked! Thank you for this POS, Microsoft.

  • zaq

    Oct 15, 2007 at 2:18 am

    you can pick any icon for empty or full then change it back to the correct version

  • ESM

    Oct 18, 2007 at 2:03 pm

    I’ve had this problem for the longest time and just gave up hoping for a fix to come through the updates.

  • Planet Vista

    Nov 1, 2007 at 3:01 am

    Excellent… congratulations for the fix. I always count on intuitive folks to try the unexpected and share the great findings. I would have never thought about doing this process.

    My cretinous Recycle Bin disappeared today ( I don’t really know what happened ), so I was able to get it back, but without having the proper visual workings.

    I just finished going through this process and all is well!!

  • Joe

    Nov 1, 2007 at 6:28 pm

    Hey… I followed the instructions and I still have the problem… But now its working the other way around: ie when its full its showing empty… So instead of before always showing full; its always showing empty… =(

  • Norby

    Dec 6, 2007 at 9:27 am

    Obwohl ich Nicht so gut englisch kann hat mir dieser Tipp sehr geholfen.
    Nun funktionieren der Papierkorb Icon wieder normal.
    Danke

  • mEsoL

    Dec 8, 2007 at 7:16 am

    give a shot of my collection of vista themes. i have iPhone Theme, Xbox 360 Theme
    PlayStation 3 Theme, Mac OS X Leopard Theme and much more.

  • Jenna

    Jan 2, 2008 at 9:03 pm

    Wonderfully written! This fixed my recycling bin completely. Thanks so much.

  • Olli

    Jan 4, 2008 at 10:04 am

    Thanks.
    It worked. All other tips didn´t work, except yours.
    A happy new Year

  • Mikhail

    Jan 6, 2008 at 7:42 pm

    Yes, It does work!
    Thank you so much!

  • Jase Pegg

    Jan 13, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    The icon change solution did not work fore me but the solution mentioned by Martin of changing theme to windows classic then back to aero worked for me. great!!

  • Martin

    Feb 4, 2008 at 10:08 am

    Superklasse!!!!!!!

  • jainth

    Feb 6, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    sir, i deleted recyclebin unknowling, i tried above way but that check box was disabled ,,, can i get some alternate way to enable recycle bin on desktop please tell me atleast mail me ::

    jainth_shar@yahoo.co.in

  • gavin

    Feb 7, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    cheers sam, worked a charm.

  • Cestino sparito Vista at ..<«¿© CrôCcòBi$çöTtò ®¿»>..

    Apr 10, 2008 at 10:29 am

    [...] ps: io non uso vista,quindi queste info le ho trovate in rete,non ho fatto altro che tradurre le informazioni trovate a questo indirizzo. [...]

  • BisKyt

    Jul 10, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    Worked like a charm for me. Thanks. That had been bothering me for ages!

  • Bobzero

    Aug 6, 2008 at 3:14 am

    Happy Wednesday

  • Mathi

    Aug 20, 2008 at 4:33 am

    Thx for help

  • Robert

    Sep 29, 2008 at 3:59 am

    Yes!…it works great…thanks for the nice tip.

  • tbgnc22

    Sep 30, 2008 at 10:44 pm

    I accidentally deleted the recycle bin and I have followed the instructions to get it back. I get the error message that the system admin has disabled launching of the Display Settings Control Panel. I am the admin and the only one who gets on my puter. How can I get around this error message? Thanks!!

  • falcon2000eg

    Nov 8, 2008 at 4:54 am

    great solution, this problem was bothering me for months .thanks

  • kevin

    Nov 9, 2008 at 11:09 am

    worked perfectly, its small things like this that will ruin the experience of using a computer. So thanks sam

  • nick

    Nov 14, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    it did the job..thanks

  • Pete, London

    Nov 29, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    Cheers mate, worked PERFECTLY! Been bugging me for ages. Ta!

  • Gery

    Jan 2, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    That was driving me nuts.

    Thanks

  • amy

    Jan 3, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    thanks so much it was driving me crazy!
    very grateful

  • Troy

    Jan 4, 2009 at 2:12 pm

    Thanks Sam! You solved my issue I have been having for a few weeks. Finally got around to looking into it and you were the first entry in my Google search results.

  • Phill

    Jan 15, 2009 at 10:04 pm

    Awesome! That’s been getting on my nerves for quite some time. You’re a star :)

  • harlieladi

    Jan 16, 2009 at 10:05 am

    dont know if it worked yet but i have bigger problems… even if it did. new compter, trid to restore it three times to yesterday, the day before and the week before, said it could not do

    but thanks anyway. i will see if my recycle bin is now working. i deleated 700 fonts that were there, i thought maybe it was too full and vista was trying to make be empty it and i did not want to because i wanted the fonts, just not yet.

  • Lee

    Jan 17, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    Your fantastic, a life saver, just finished a default factory restore (had to) and then i go and accidently delete my bin………….and it wouldn’t show empty and full, your great…..don’t know programming, wish i did i have other problems on my 2007 acer aspire 5100 with windows vista, but it’s software issues. Thanks again.

  • Patti

    Jan 24, 2009 at 8:09 am

    So grateful for this help. Ihad read somewhere that the inability of the recycle bin to show when it contained something was just a quirk of Vista, so get used to it. Thank you so much for offering an alternative!

  • Ben

    Mar 4, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    Thanks, was wondering about that. 2Thumbs up!

  • Qasim

    May 26, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    Thank you very much, this had been pretty annoying for a while now =D

    Worked a charm,

    Thanks again.

  • Jan

    Jun 1, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    It worked. Another thing that goes wrong with Vista. I hate Vista, but thanks for the help.

  • Submeg

    Sep 16, 2009 at 8:01 pm

    Cheers for that, was annoying me!

  • amanda

    Oct 6, 2009 at 11:44 am

    hey, idk whats wrong with my computer, am using windows vista, but everytime i click on the recycling bin, it doesnt show anythin in it even tho it says it full, it wont let me restore them, it onli lets me delet them,can you help me plz!!!

  • Lee

    Oct 6, 2009 at 11:59 am

    Thanks this is so simple to what we thought might have been a complicated solution….

  • Ben

    Oct 15, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    Thanks for the Fix! It was driving me nuts but this worked like a charm.

  • Greg

    Dec 25, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    Thanks. Worked like a charm.

  • Lindsay

    Apr 1, 2010 at 8:47 am

    Thanks SO much! It absolutely worked.

  • AV

    Apr 21, 2010 at 1:43 am

    Spent hours online trying to find a solution with no luck. Thanks for the great post took 30 seconds and it worked. Definitely a fan of the site.

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