Hide, Delete, or Destroy the Recycle Bin Icon in Windows 7 or Vista
I’ve never found the recycle bin on the desktop very useful, so I almost always disable it as one of the first things that I do. Windows 7 or Vista has an even simpler way to hide the icon than XP does, but why couldn’t they have disabled it by default?
Just right-click on the icon and select delete from the menu. It’s as simple as that.
Note that you can also configure this from the Desktop Icon Settings in Personalization.
If you’ve removed or lost system icons on your desktop, you can restore them easily.
This article was originally written on 01/7/07
Daily Email Updates
You can get our how-to articles in your inbox each day for free. Just enter your name and email below:
And how do I enable it again?
Go to Personalization in the control panel, and go to the Desktop Icon Settings dialog. You can just put the checkbox back.
If I delete the thing, do I have to worry about Vista keeping track of all changes like the bin does until I “empty” it? Wouldn’t this create a large and useless file eventually?
Having deleted the recycle bin and then restored it again I notice that it no longer refreshes when I empty it. I can do this manually by hitting F5 but that’s hardly ideal. Any idea how to fix this?
I just found the solution to my problem which others may find useful….
HERE IS THE FIX FOR THIS PROBLEM: right click on desktop, got to
‘personalize’, then in the left column click ‘change desktop icons’.
Afterwards, click on the ‘recycle bin empty’ icon and change it with the icon
that shows the recycle bin full…and do the same for the ‘recycle bin full’
icon. Click apply. Now when the recycle bin is full it will show empty and
when empty it will show full. Go back and change them to the normal icons as
they should be and it will solve the problem
You need to post this fix EVERYWHERE! It took me a while to find it and in looking I found lots of people with the same issue. THANKS!
I did what you said about changing the empty and full Icons for the recycle bin but its still shows full when its empty
Thanks Chris! I was dreading the thought that I had ruined that icon until I formatted for whatever reason. Whew.
Hi:
AOL 1.1 has just been installed on my system. I have
“lost” my Recycle Garbage Can icon.
Do you have any idea where I can locate it?????
Thanks.
June
Thank you. The fix confused me at first but when I did what it actually said it worked! When I reread it after fixing the recycle bin it made sense. Much better!
COOL!
THANKS A MILLION… man, I thought I was gonna be trashless forever!
Holy.. @#;/#?!!! How did you figure that out mate?!! My recycle bin been screwed since last feb and I’d given up trying to google an answer for it. I tried also various stuff with the icon settings with no luck.. Thanks.
by me sand nowhere change desktop icons ! help
by my stand nowhere change desktop icons! help me please
by me stand nowhere change desktop icons ! help
oh now i now it thx
now i have it thx
thx i have it finaly thx
Thank you so much! I was going crazy trying to figure out how to get my recycle bin working right again.
I deleted my recycle bin icon by an accident and what to restore it back. How to I restore it.
I like that Icon
Thanks alot chrisprice your info helped me
This is pretty funny, the article is about removing the ugly trashcan and all the replies are asking how to get it back
Thank you very much to chrisprice and How-to-Geek webpage. Your information helped alot! My recycle bin was easily restore.
I uninstalled a demo program today, but Vista left the icon for it on my desktop. Now it won’t allow me to delete teh icon, since it can’t find the file it’s associated with. This makes no sense, and is irritating. I hate icons on my desktop, and useless icons are even worse!
Any suggestions to force the removal of this icon?
Does anybody know how to delete files that are in the recycle.bin? It appears empty, but when I run a report at the command line it shows 2 files in c:\recycle.bin. There is a difference between the recycler and recycle.bin. How can it show as empty, but still have contents in it?
I have the same problem as Aaron, i’m running Vista HP. Anyone got a solution? Thanks
Ok How do you delete it do most people don’t pay action or some thing lol i don’t think i ever once thought about deleting it
i have mistakenly deleleted my recycle bin from my desktop and now i cannot find it anywhere. How do i undo this, it was done a day ago. or how do i get it back?
Right-click the Desktop, and choose Personalize. Then click on “Change
desktop icons”, under Tasks (on the left side of the window). Put a check
next to Recycle Bin.
thanks you recycled my bin for me have a great Christmas
Thanks chrisprice!!!
I also deleted my recycle bin…I tried to right click and goto change desktop icons under the task section…nothing happens, any ideas?
in fact…many of the options dont work when I click them…weird huh?
Thanks a lot chrisprice, even though you left that message almost a year ago. You were a great help. I’ve been trying to figure that out forever!
thanks for the tip. My recycle bin icon just wanished, and i couldnt find it for days. i found it in the control panel at last. thanks for the tip
For Vista operating system
To restore the recycle bin in your notebook please follow the below steps:
1. Right-click on the desktop
2. Click on Personalize
3. Click on change Desktop Icons on the left pane
4. Check on the Recycle bin icon.
5. Apply and OK
To empty recycle bin, right click on Recycle bin icon and click empty recycle bin.
This should resolve the issue.
My recybin bin is always full, even its empty. I have tried to make it empty as the tip above but it dint work.. anybody can help? thx
great post solve my problem, thanks
Hi guys.. any help from this kind of problem? i accidentally deleted the “RESTORE SYSTEM” icon even in the recycle bin… its getting worst about my computer because i want to restore from the date i install my ms office 2007… things getting worst for it hangs up every 5 minutes.. is there a way to UNDO the “RESTORE SYSTEM” icon again?
a heaty-thanks for helping me…
Hey chrisprice a big thankx for the solution,I dont know how u got the fix for the solution but its
awesome how uve fixed the problem.
an answer to all the people that, either after startup or on startup, dont see their start menu, any of their taskbar, or any icons:
Hold Alt + Control + delete and open task manager.
click “new task” and type “explorer.exe” (no quotes), as this is what worked for me.
Email me if this comment helped you.
If you do it exactyl as he says it works, thanks.
thanx, you helped me out
thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks and thanks a billion times and thank you very much dude
I tried to move two .wmv files from the desktop to a CD, but the CD didn’t format — errored — so I ejected it. Now the two icons for the .wmv files remain on the desktop, and when I try to delete them, it says “cannot find files” to delete the icons. Properties says they are both at 0 size, but the icons remain. Anyone know how I can get rid of these icons (they’re not a shortcut) –? BTW, I’m using Vista (ahem…).
Thanks,
KJG
Why is it that when i delete a file, it still appears in the search results??
To those of you who uninstalled stuff in Vista and still have the icon on your desktop…I experienced this too and all it took to fix it was to refresh the desktop. Just right-click on the desktop and select “Refresh” and *poof* the icon goes away…or at least it did for me! Good luck!
I actually have the same question as with Dazza. I deleted a lot of picture files and emptied in recycle bin but still showing in search results but icons only. I don’t want to show it anymore in search results. I’m using Windows Vista.
Lol, I googled how to delete the recycle bin instead of right clicking it. I assumed it would involve deleting registry keys again like on XP.
Thanks for your help as always HowToGeek!
I did have a problem but thanks to brneydgrl I resolved it. You Rock!!!!
Is too bloody simple,I just started searching for tweaks (as I am usually doing in XP) when I found this post.
Many Thanks
How do you remove the Delete command from the Recycle Bin? I know it goes against what you’d like, but I’d like to prevent if from being “Deleted” that way, the way though Personalization is good enough.
I do not know if the delete command can be removed from right click Recycle Bin Menu,even that is removed by misteake,a new shortcut to Recycle Bin can be added to desktop from Control Panel.If you belive that this detail is important you can edit some of your Win Vista files and remove from there this option,but I warn you that this might be difficult and is very time consumming
@Xeogin: For disabling the delete command on the Recycle Bin see http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....ows-vista/
Well I have XP and I deleted my Recycling bin I need help to get it back and theres so much stuff in it that it’s slowing my computer down help PLEASE!
How do I remove Recycle Can icon from desktopn in XP Professional?
Thank you
GS
brneydgrl
To those of you who uninstalled stuff in Vista and still have the icon on your desktop…I experienced this too and all it took to fix it was to refresh the desktop. Just right-click on the desktop and select “Refresh” and *poof* the icon goes away…or at least it did for me! Good luck!
thanks so much brneydgrl!!!! this was a huge help. i am quite pleased.
how do i delete the stuff in my recycle bin?
thank you so so so so much!!!!!
!
i deleted my folder of digital photos about 5,000 of them
thanks so much for helping me get to my recycle bin
i was so upset that they were gone
but thanks again
Kiara-Marie
Listen to jjk (november 8.) comments.
His is simple and spot on.
Thanks jjk
Thank you so much, the second blue comment on personalizations worked in seconds.
right-click > delete ?
how is this worthy of an article? ..who couldn’t have figured this out?
For interest: does anyone know which registry key controls this on Vista? ..
(i.e. which reg hack will add/remove the bin for you on Vista? – I tried the old XP keys to no effect)
Thanks Chris. It’s really work!! You are the man!
Worked instantly–thanks very much.