To get to desktop icon settings in Windows 8.1, swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then select Search. Type desktop icons in the search box, and then select Show or hide common icons on the desktop.
I hate having anything on my desktop. I usually remove all the icons from the desktop, even the recycle bin. Occasionally I need to access the recycle bin, but having to re-enable the icon just to open it, is annoying.
Create a shortcut to the recycle bin (re-enable the icon on the desktop if you have to, you can disable it again after the shortcut is created) and drop the shortcut into the start menu somewhere convenient.
Now in the tree view on the right side of the Explorer window right click Favorites and select "Add current location to Favorites". The Recycle Bin will now appear as a icon under your Windows Explorer Favorites tree node.
I also hate having anything on the desktop. I usually create Desktop toolbar on taskbar (right-click on empty taskbar space, Toolbars, Desktop) with the smallest possible size (you can change the toolbar size when the taskbar is not locked). When I press , I have access to expandable Recycle Bin with appropriate icon (empty or full), with all right-click options like Empty Recycle Bin (the same applies also to My Computer and the Manage option).
You can also disable the toolbar Text and Title when the taskbar is not locked (by right-clicking on left toolbar separator). Then you can change the size of the toolbar to see only one icon, and rearrange the icons to see only Recycle Bin. In such a case you will you will see the icon alone (with only a small ) without need to click anything, right-click will work also correctly, though the icon will not be expandable.
On Windows 8 you can hide the Recycle Bin (and other icons on the desktop) by following Charms bar > Settings > Personalization. But on Server 2012 this returns an empty window with the message "This page is not available in this version of Windows."
Anyway, the ability to show or hide system icons on your desktop is part of the Desktop Experience feature. Either you accept to live withouth them (and with the Recycle Bin permanently stuck there), or you have to enable the whole feature, up to and including access to the Store.
To the user, the Recycle Bin icon looks like a single recycle bin, but Windows actually uses a separate hidden folder on each drive. The deleted files are temporarily stored in these folders until the Recycle Bin is emptied.
In theory, you can also delete the Recycle Bin folder via File Explorer. This can prompt Windows to immediately recreate the recycle bin without restarting, but it will not fix the problem. Therefore, we recommend using the command-line tool as described above.
If your desktop has no icons, it may be set to hide all icons on the desktop. Before following the steps below, make sure your desktop is showing icons. See: How to show or hide desktop shortcut icons.
You can show or hide the icon for the recycle bin on the desktop. To do this, open the Settings app and set whether the desktop icon should be visible under Personalization > Themes > Desktop icon settings. Hiding or showing it does not affect the recycle bin functions.
Do you want to pin the recycle bin to the taskbar? Because dragging it down with the mouse does not work, first create a shortcut by right-clicking on a free area of the desktop and selecting New > Shortcut in the context menu. Enter the following as the storage location:
To do this, right-click on the previously created desktop shortcut and continue with Properties > Other icon. You can find the correct recycle bin icon via Browse in the folder C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll. Confirm with OK and then place the shortcut in the taskbar by dragging and dropping with the mouse button held down. If desired, you can even delete the desktop shortcut itself; the recycle bin in the taskbar will still work.
We should also mention how to get rid of annoying entries in the context menu of the recycle bin that may appear there after installing software. Open the Windows registry by typing regedit into the Run field in the taskbar. In the registry editor, press the shortcut Ctrl+F to display the search field. In it, type
Windows always comes with a Recycle Bin icon on the desktop, but you can hide it to reduce clutter. The process is a little different on every version of Windows. We wish you could just right-click the Recycle Bin and select "Delete" on Windows 11, like you could on Windows Vista.
Do you find Recycle Bin is missing from your desktop after Windows 10 update? You deleted some files by mistake and now want to restore them from Recycle Bin, but find Recycle Bin is not on the desktop? So, how do you open Recycle Bin if it is not on the desktop? If you have no idea, now I will illustrate some other way you can open Recycle Bin without a desktop icon in Windows 10.
First of all, you should check if the Recycle Bin on your PC is corrupted or not. If you just find the Recycle Bin icon not refreshing after you have installed new third-party Theme or an Icon Package, please try to uninstall them and see what happens. Try to set the theme to Windows Classic and set Windows Aero default.
However, as I mentioned above, Windows 10 and its successor share a lot of similarities. For example, the way you show/hide the Recycle Bin icon on Windows 11 desktop is very similar to how you do it in Windows 10. Not just Recycle Bin icon, but you can also show or hide other desktop icons by following a few steps.
Another way to open the Change desktop icons dialog is by running the command control desk.cpl,,0 from the Run dialog. Works in all versions of Windows, including Windows 10/11.Reset the Recycle bin icon using Registry fixTo reset the Recycle Bin Full & Empty icons in the registry to Windows default values:
Thank You, a very concise and clear set of instructions that actually work as intended. After trying other solutions with no success, now the recycle bin displays empty and full as it did before replacing the icons.
We have a user, that is a thinclient user with a roaming profile. When she logs into our TS cluster, her recycle bin is missing. When i navigate to the "Desktop Icon Settings" properties window, the checkbox for "Recycle Bin" is greyed out.
This issue is for the one user only, the next step was to recreate the profile, but i did not want to do so without knowing the cause. It would make sense that updates could be a potential problem, as it started happening after the last windows updates / reboots of the TS Servers
To move a file out of the Recycle Bin to a new location, double-clickthe Recycle Bin icon and drag the file icon onto thedesktop. From the desktop, you can move the restored file to thedirectory of your choice.
The Group Policy Editor lets you show or hide the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop. Check if you have modified and accidentally disabled the Recycle Bin group policy recently. If so you can set the Remove Recycle Bin icon from the desktop policy to "Not Configured" which will restore it.
Another way to resolve and restore the grayed-out Recycle Bin icon in the Desktop settings is via the Windows Registry. You can modify the registry entry value responsible for the settings and configurations of Recycle Bin working to restore the functionality.
An incorrectly modified group policy can gray out the Recycle Bin icon in the Desktop Icon Settings dialog. Fortunately, it's an easy fix, and you should now have your Recycle Bin back to how you like it.
The video recycle bin allows you to restore videos if they were accidentally deleted or to permanently delete videos already in the recycle bin before the 30-day limit. If no action is taken 30 days after videos are deleted, they are automatically purged from the recycle bin and permanently deleted.
To open File Explorer, click the File Explorer icon on the taskbar, or double-click any folder on your desktop. A new File Explorer window will appear. Now you're ready to start working with your files and folders.
If you have a file or folder you use frequently, you can save time by creating a shortcut on the desktop. Instead of navigating to the file or folder each time you want to use it, you can simply double-click the shortcut to open it. A shortcut will have a small arrow in the lower-left corner of the icon.
Do you like the Recycle Bin icon (as shown in the following picture) in your computer? Or have you ever thought that you are able to change it independently? In this article, you can learn the steps to change Recycle Bin icon in Windows 8 computer.
Step 1: Open the Search panel with Windows+F hotkeys, type recycle bin in the blank box, choose Settings and tap Show or hide common icons on the desktop to access Desktop Icon Settings.
Another practical way to remove the Recycle Bin icon from desktop is editing the Windows registry directly. Before modifying the Windows registry, we recommend that you back up the Windows registry so that they don't get corrupted and affect your computer.
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