My recycling bin has disappeared and I cannot find it.

Anonymous

My brother went on my laptop and after he was finished, he said he 'deleted' my recycling bin. I'm not sure if that is what happened, but I cannot find it. I have searched for it, and it isn't showing up.

Help greatly appreciated.

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Anonymous

Hi,

Just for general info first: Your brother may be right. It actually is possible to delete the recycling bin, or more specifically the recycling bin shortcut. If you right click on the recycle bin icon two options are of interest here "Empty recycle bin" and "Delete". If you click recycle bin you win, the recycle bin is emptied. If you hit delete, which it sounds like your brother did, it deletes the icon itself. So that's why it's gone...

So getting the recycling bin back, here's how. This solution works for Vista and Windows 7:

Right click on a blank area of the desktop. You will see the option for "personalize", and mouse over and select this. On the left hand pane under the personalization menu you will see "Change desktop icons". Click on this. From here a tab will come up showing a check-box for major desktop icons. One of those icons is Recycle bin. Go ahead and check the checkbox. Click ok and the recycle bin will re-appear on the desktop.

Hope this helps,

Steve <> Microsoft Partner

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Anonymous

Right click your desktop, select Personalize. On the left pan, select Change desktop icons. Put a check on the Recycle Bin, and press Ok.

Your recycle bin icon will be back!

Dustin Harper

*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

http://www.mstechpages.com Microsoft News, support, FAQ's and much more!

"Martin.992" wrote in message news:de2b7b40-6711-44d2-af33-7786b3f2e8cd...

My brother went on my laptop and after he was finished, he said he 'deleted' my recycling bin. I'm not sure if that is what happened, but I cannot find it. I have searched for it, and it isn't showing up.

Help greatly appreciated.

Dustin Harper *** Email address is removed for privacy *** http://www.mstechpages.com --- Windows Help and Support Page

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47 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-12-31T14:46:19+00:00

I will give you a little more info and then you can flag this for next Monday or so, depending on how the celebration goes : ) Ccleaner has been emptying my trash for ages but I don't think that would have taken the bin off the desktop, it hasn't on our other computer. I did change that setting for now to see if it made any difference but it didn't; the recycle bin option is still greyed out on the change desktop icon screen. If I have that 'OMG didn't mean to delete that' realization and right click on the empty portion of the desktop I have the option to 'undo delete,' but only for that specific event. Thanks again for your help, I wish you a safe and happy New Year!
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Anonymous

2014-12-31T13:42:22+00:00

At least now you can empty the recycle bin via disk cleanup if all else fails! (Hopefully it won't...)

The next step involves accessing hidden files/folders so let me know when you are ready to go and we'll give it a try. (But I'm heading for the bar now so after New Year will do!)

Happy 2015 - best - R
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Anonymous

2014-12-31T00:51:26+00:00

Recycle bin is there and I can check the box so not greyed out. I'm off til morning so no hurry with a next step, thanks so much for helping with this.
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