Windows 10: Recycle bin full of unknown files

Hello, I recently upgraded to Windows 10, and just joined the forum. I just happened to take a look in my recycle bin, and it is full of hundreds of files, in addition to the few I had in there when I upgraded. I am running the Home version. Are these files a normal occurrence when the OS is upgraded? And, can I empty the bin without causing any problems? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

:)

 

Recycle Bin – its size exceeds the set limits and stopped automatically deleting old files

Hi Oleg, a common mis-perception is setting the size of the Recycle Bin in Windows - it does not work the way it is supposed to . ..

The way it actually works is:

From that dialog, you set the size

Then any files that are deleted that are larger than that size will not be moved to the recycle bin - they will be deleted totally

Say you set the size of the recycle bin to 1GB, if you try to delete a file larger than 1GB, it will not be moved to the recycle bin, but you can separately delete 10 files of say 500MB and they will all go to the recycle bin

For some unknown reason, this is the way it works . . .

 

Windows 10 corrupted Recycle bin

I have two recycle bins one full one empty.

I tried used File Explorer options to uncheck system protected files.

I don't see and can't find the Recycle Bin subdir's or files. I search Drive C for recycle .. found nothing.

I don't know if they are corrupted (unlikely) or why I have two Recycle Bins that can't be found.

when I back up my IPad it says the RB is full. I empted it .. or one of them! Still full!

How do I get out of this mess. Windows 10 fully updated.

 

Welcome to the forum. Without know what the files are its hard to say but its possible they are part of the upgrade. If everything is work ok leave it a few days so your sure its ok then empty the bin

 

The files are in the format of DELLPC-xxxxxxxx-xxxx.log, MSIxxxxx.LOG, and officeclicktorun.exe_streamserver
Thank you!

 

What is sure is that you can delete all files with .log extension with no problem. The MSIxxxxx.LOG files seem to be from verbose logging.

 

Can you explain 'verbose logging"? I don't believe I have heard that term before.

 

verbose logging for the Windows Installer service. This can be confirmed by looking at registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer
and look for String value named Logging

 

These files appear to be MS Office logs or something Office related.

 

During updates and upgrades everything deemed not needed any more is placed i windows.old directory not in the recycle bin. Even Disk cleanup doesn't send them there. If there's no problems running windows and programs you are free to empty it. If you use disk cleanup for that it will refuse to delete any files that are in eventual use.
One thing I noticed during years is that many are using Recycle bin as a temporary storage which is wrong. It's better to place a Temp folder on desktop and empty RB regularly.

 

Run winver and let us know what you are running.

"Are these files a normal occurrence when the OS is upgraded?" I haven't seen anything like that yet.
--- In my experience, I'm not familiar with how items end up in the recycle bin without user interaction.

I would create a system image backup: myself I use Macrium Reflect Free.
--- Then empty the Recycle Bin after a few days when you are comfortable that the computer is running fine.

 

One more possibility, uninstalling a program may place files in RB too. I know Revo does that if not set otherwise.

 

Thanks CountMike, I'll need to keep that in mind if I ever use Revo.