The Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin

One of the icons on your desktop is the Recycle Bin. When you delete a file or folder on your computer, that file temporarily goes into the Recycle Bin. It stays there until the Recycle Bin gets too full and then the oldest files in the bin are deleted to make room for the newer files.

Why do you have a recycle bin? Because many people delete a file on their computer, only to realize that they really needed that file and wanted a way to get it back. The Recycle Bin ensures that deleted files can be recovered if they are needed later.

When you look at the Recycle Bin on the Vista Desktop, you can tell if it contains files, or is empty. If there are files in the Recycle Bin, the icon appears to have crumpled up paper in it. If it is empty, the icon looks like an empty basket.

If you are sure you don't need a file, you can open the recycle bin and delete it from there (it will be permanently gone once you do that) by clicking on the icon once and then pressing the "Delete" key on your keyboard. You can delete all the files in the Recycle Bin by clicking on the "Empty the Recycle Bin" button on the Command bar.

You can also empty the Recycle Bin without even opening it. Just right-click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, then click "Empty Recycle Bin". A small dialog box will appear asking you if you want to permanently delete the items, all you have to do, is click "Yes".

Each user account in Vista has its own Recycle Bin, so if you empty your recycle bin, the other users on your computer won't lose the files in their Recycle Bin.

The Recycle Bin contains all the files that have been deleted but can still be restored. This makes it easy to get your files back, all you have to do is "restore" the file by right clicking on the file, then clicking Restore. You can also left click once on the file, then click "Restore this item" in the command bar. This moves the file back to its original location.

You can also drag a file out of the recycle bin and place it on the desktop or in another folder.

If you have a lot of files in the Recycle Bin, and are having a hard time finding the file you want to restore, you can use the tools in the window to help you find it. You will see an icon in the Recycle Bin toolbar that says "Views". Click on the arrow to the right of the Views icon and select "Details" from the menu. Your display will change to show you more information about the files in your recycle bin. You will be able to see the name of the file, its original location on your hard drive, the date it was deleted, the size of the file and the type of file.

Once you are using the Details view, you can sort the icons by any of the available columns. For example, if you know you deleted the file in the past few days, click on the words, "Date Deleted" at the top of the column and the files will be sorted according to the date you deleted them. If you click on "Date Deleted" again, it will reverse the order of the sorted files. If you know the name of the file, click on "Name" and the files will be sorted in alphabetical order. This makes it easy to find a file if you just know a little bit of information about it.

Sometimes you just know that you want to get rid of a file or files and don't want or need to store them in the Recycle Bin. When you are deleting files, you can skip the Recycle Bin and just get rid of the files by holding down the "Shift" key on your keyboard while deleting the file.


Recycle Bin Settings:

You can change settings for your Recycle Bin. To access these settings, right click on the "Recycle Bin" icon on your desktop, then click on "Properties"

Let's take a look at the Recycle Bin Properties window.

If there is more than one hard drive (or your hard drive is divided into two logical drives) you will first be able to select which drive you want to work with. Each hard drive in Windows has its own Recycle bin with its own settings.

Look at the settings for your selected location and you will see that you can set the size in megabytes for your recycle bin. Once the files in the bin reach that size, the oldest files will be permanently deleted as new files are added.

You can also choose to skip the recycle bin altogether by selecting the option that says "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted. Be careful, selecting this option means that you will never be able to restore a file if you realize you need it after all.

The third and final setting you can change is the "Delete confirmation dialog" This is the pesky little window that pops up and asks you "Are you sure you want to move this file to the Recycle Bin?". If you are tired of clicking "Yes" every time you try to delete a file, just click to remove the check mark from the setting, "Display delete confirmation dialog".