Windows 10: Empty Recycle Bin in Windows 10

How to: Empty Recycle Bin in Windows 10

How to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows 10


The Recycle Bin provides a safety net when deleting files or folders. When you delete any of these items from a hard disk, Windows places it in the Recycle Bin and the Recycle Bin icon changes from empty to full.

If you have multiple hard drives, partitions, or an external hard drive connected to your PC, each location will have its own $Recycle.Bin and Recycle Bin settings. Removable drives, such as USB flash drives and memory cards, will not have a Recycle Bin. Files deleted from removable drives are permanently deleted.

Each user account on the PC will have their own separate Recycle Bin, and will be referenced by their Security Identifier (SID) in each drive's $Recycle.Bin.




Items in the Recycle Bin still take up hard disk space and can be undeleted or restored back to their original location. When the Recycle Bin of a drive reaches its maximum storage size, Windows will automatically permanently delete (empty) older files in the Recycle Bin location to accommodate the most recently deleted files and folders.

When you manually empty the Recycle Bin, all files in the Recycle Bin will be permanently deleted to free up disk space.

This tutorial will show you different ways on how to empty Recycle Bin for your account or all accounts in Windows 10.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and all drives from Recycle Bin desktop icon
• Option Two: To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and all drives from File Explorer Navigation Pane
• Option Three: To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and all drives from File Explorer Ribbon
• Option Four: To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and specific drive in Disk Cleanup
• Option Five: To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and specific or all drives in PowerShell
• Option Six: To Empty Recycle Bin for all users and specific drive in Command Prompt

OPTION ONE [/i] To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and all drives from Recycle Bin desktop icon
1. Right click or press and hold on the Recycle Bin desktop icon, and click/tap on Empty Recycle Bin. (see screenshot below)









OPTION TWO [/i] To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and all drives from File Explorer Navigation Pane

*note This option is only available if you have set to added the Recycle Bin to the navigation pane.
1. Right click or press and hold on the Recycle Bin in the navigation pane, and click/tap on Empty Recycle Bin. (see screenshot below)









OPTION THREE [/i] To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and all drives from File Explorer Ribbon
1. Open the Recycle Bin.

2. Click/tap on the "Recycle Bin Tools" Manage tab, and click/tap on Empty Recycle Bin in the ribbon. (see screenshot below)









OPTION FOUR [/i] To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and specific drive in Disk Cleanup
1. Open Disk Cleanup.

2. If you have more than one drive or partition on your PC, then select the drive you want to empty the Recycle Bin for, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



3. Check the Recycle Bin box, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



4. Click/tap on Delete Files to confirm. (see screenshot below)








OPTION FIVE [/i] To Empty Recycle Bin for your account and specific or all drives in PowerShell

*note For more usage details of the Clear-RecycleBin command, see: Clear-RecycleBin - Microsoft Developer Network
1. Open PowerShell.

2. Enter the command below you want to use into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshots below)
(Empty Recycle Bin for all drives)
*Arrow Clear-RecycleBin -force -ErrorAction:Ignore

OR

(Empty Recycle Bin for specific drive)
*Arrow Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter <drive letter> -force -ErrorAction:Ignore

:*note Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to empty the Recycle Bin for.

For example: Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter C -force -ErrorAction:Ignore







3. When finished, you can close PowerShell if you like.





OPTION SIX [/i] To Empty Recycle Bin for all users and specific drive in Command Prompt
1. Open a command prompt.

2. Enter the command below you want to use into the command prompt, and press Enter.
(Empty Recycle Bin for all drives)
*Arrow PowerShell Clear-RecycleBin -force -ErrorAction:Ignore

OR

(Empty Recycle Bin for specific drive)
*Arrow PowerShell Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter <drive letter> -force -ErrorAction:Ignore

*note Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to empty the Recycle Bin for.

For example: PowerShell Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter C -force -ErrorAction:Ignore
3. When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.

*tip The Recycle Bin desktop icon will not automatically refresh to the empty icon using this option. You can open and close the Recycle Bin to refresh the icon.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Add Empty Recycle Bin to Context Menu in Windows 10
• Add or Remove Empty Recycle Bin Context Menu for Recycle Bin in Windows
• How to Set Recycle Bin to Permanently Delete Files Immediately in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Recycle Bin Delete Confirmation in Windows 10
• How to Change Maximum Storage Size for Recycle Bin in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Recycle Bin in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 10
• How to Pin Recycle Bin to Taskbar in Windows 10
• How to Change the Default Recycle Bin Icon in Windows 10
• How to Fix Corrupted Recycle Bin in Windows
• How to Specify when Storage Sense Delete Files in Recycle Bin in Windows 10
• How to Add Secure Delete to Recycle Bin Context Menu in Windows 10

:)

 

recycle bin

Hi George,

To prevent your files from being deleted from the Recycle Bin, we suggest increasing the maximum file size your Recycle Bin can keep by following the steps below:

• Right click on the Recycle Bin icon.
• Under the Settings for selected location, select Custom size.
• Fill up the box for your allotted maximum file size for your Recycle Bin.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

Lost Recycle Bin in Windows 10

Hello,

We highly suggest to follow the steps below:

• Click the Start button , type desktop icons into the search box, and then click Show or hide common icons on the desktop.
• In the Desktop Icon Settings dialog box, do one of the following: To hide the Recycle Bin, clear the Recycle Bin check box. ...
  
• Click OK.

Let us know how it goes.

 

Recycle Bin gone

Hi,

I apologize for the delayed response.

I suggest you to try the steps provided in the help article below to show the recycle bin in the desktop and check if it helps.

Show or hide the Recycle Bin

Let us know the result.

 

recycle bin

Hello Thomas,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community, we appreciate your interest in Windows 10.

I understand your concern to find Recycle bin in Windows 10, please follow the below steps:

• Type Settings in the search box from the desktop and click on
  Settings.
• Select Personalization and click on Themes
  in the left pane of this window.
• Click on Desktop icon settings and click on Recycle bin icon.
• Click Apply and Ok.
• Now you will be able to see Recycle bin on the desktop.

Hope it helps. Feel free to contact us for further assistance on Windows Operating System, we will be happy to help you.

 

Recycle Bin

Hi, Scout-86.

Bare with me. I'm only a student in Information Technology. I believe the recycle bin might be corrupted, causing it to vanish from the desktop completely.

Try one of these two fixes and see if helps.

Solution 1:

• Step 1: Select Start -> Settings -> Personalization -> Themes -> Desktop icon settings.
• Step 2: Make sure the checkbox for Recycle Bin is checked, then select OK. You should see the icon displayed on your desktop.

Solution 2:

• Step 1 Run Command Prompt as an administrator.
• Step 2 Type the command rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin and press enter.
• Step 3 Type exit to close the Command Prompt window

I hope this helps!



(This comes from [Fixed] Can't Find or Open Recycle Bin Windows 10/8/7 - EaseUS)