One of the things almost everybody uses in Windows is the Recycle Bin. And with good reason. It is very easy to throw something away and then find out you did need it after all. So here is a tutorial on how the Recycle Bin works. First, I will share what the Recycle Bin is and where you can find it. Then, I will show how to delete files, how to restore them and, at the end, I’ll explain how to configure the Recycle Bin so that it works as you want to.

What is the Recycle Bin?

The Recycle Bin is a folder with a fancy icon where files and folders that you have deleted are stored. They have not been permanently removed from your hard drive(s), they were only "moved" to this special folder. To put it simply: the Recycle Bin is the place where the references towards your deleted files and folders are kept. Physically, on your hard disk, they occupy the same location. You just can’t use them or open them when they are in the Recycle Bin. Windows keeps track of where they came from, so you can "undelete" (restore) them if you want to. Each partition on a hard drive has a Recycle Bin, but the fun thing is all the files you delete appear in this one folder with the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop.

By default, you find the Recycle Bin in the left top corner of your desktop, looking like in the image below.

You can find it also on the left-side panel in Windows Explorer.

How to Delete Files and Folders

To delete a file or folder, select it and hit Delete on your keyboard. Alternatively, right click on it and select Delete in the right click menu.

A pop-up will appear asking you if you really want to delete the file. When you click Yes, it will go to the Recycle Bin or you can cancel the action by clicking No.

You can also select multiple items and delete them. The pop-up will be something like the screenshot below.

When deleting a folder, the confirmation dialogue looks similar to the screenshot below.

Bypassing the Recycle Bin

If you are absolutely certain you want to delete a file, you can bypass the Recycle Bin altogether by selecting a file or files and hitting Shift + Delete on your keyboard. You will immediately see this confirmation pop-up, asking if you are sure you want to permanently delete the selected content.

Remember, when you do this, the file or folder is deleted for real and cannot be found in the Recycle Bin for easy restoration.

Viewing & Managing the Content of the Recycle Bin

When opening the Recycle Bin, you see a list with all the files and folders you have deleted.

You can also right click a file and see it’s properties.

It will tell you where the file came from and when you deleted it. In my example I deleted a copy of a screenshot I made. You can see it is saved using the ".png" format, when it was deleted and when it was created, but you can’t see what it looks like, it’s content. This is true of all items found in the Recycle Bin. You cannot really use them unless you restore them.

You can select a file and choose "Restore this file" in the menu bar, in case you want to use it again.

Also, you can also choose to restore all the files that have been deleted in one click by using "Restore all items". This option shows up only if you have no files and folders selected.

How to Empty the Recycle Bin

You can select files that you want to delete permanently and hit delete on your keyboard. That way you can delete some files and keep others.

If you are sure you want to get rid of all your deleted items permanently, you can empty the Recycle Bin. Right-click on it and click "Empty Recycle Bin".

You will get another popup, asking for confirmation.

When you open the Recycle Bin, you can find a button for emptying it on the top toolbar. Clicking on it will have the same effect as described above.

How to edit the properties of the Recycle Bin

When you right click on the Recycle Bin icon, you get a menu like the one shown below. Click on Properties.

This opens up a menu where you see the drives or partitions that have a Recycle Bin and where you can choose the size allocated for storing deleted files on each of them.

As you can see I have two partitions on one hard drive on my laptop. One is the "C:" drive and the other "D:". Below that are the settings for the selected partition. In this case I selected C. The maximum size allocated for Recycle Bin on my C drive is viewable and editable here. You can change it to what fits your needs, but in most cases the default settings will do just fine.

Instead of the custom size, you can also choose "Don’t move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted." This option is not recommended!

It is very easy to delete a file by mistake. If you move them to the Recycle Bin, mistakes are easy to fix. But if you have removed a file permanently there is no default way in Windows to get it back. Only drastic action, like restoring a restore point or using a third-party program specifically designed for this purpose will help you and even then it might prove difficult or even impossible.

If you untick "Display delete confirmation dialog", you won’t see messages like the one below, anymore.

I prefer to keep this ticked, simply as another layer of protection to prevent yourself from accidentally deleting things you might still need.

Why would you ever empty the Recycle Bin?

Because the files you delete and that are in the Recycle Bin just have their reference to them moved, but they are still on your hard drive. This means they still take up space. Unlike the trash function in email accounts, the Recycle Bin does not empty itself after a specific period of time. So every once in a while, when you are certain you don’t need the deleted stuff anymore, you should empty it.

Conclusion

As you can see from this tutorial, managing the Recycle Bin is pretty easy. Using the Recycle Bin is also a safe way to make sure you can still recover data you deleted accidentally. So... keep using it and let us know if you have any questions or troubles when working with it.