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My desktop Recycle Bin has disappeared - why, and how do I get it back?

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Hi,
Can I know the source path of the recycle bin for winxp pro? where is it normally store? tried to look in the windows folder but there are too many subs folders..pls advise

Posted by: nicole at December 9, 2005 11:41 PM

It's typically a hidden folder at the root of the drive.

Posted by: Leo at December 15, 2005 9:25 PM

hey..i tried to delete the recycle bin from the desktop and i successfully did!...but the problem is that i dont know where does the deleted files go now...and i didnt find recycle bin on my hard drive...please advice me how to get it back..thnx in advance...

Posted by: Roshan at December 28, 2005 7:41 PM

I don't know what more to tell you. The article has a link to tweak UI which you can use to re-enable the Recycle bin.

Posted by: Leo at December 28, 2005 9:23 PM

The recycle bin is usually a hidden directory at the root of your drive called "\RECYCLER". Note that it is NOT just a directory of your files - they are renamed and indexed - you really want to use the recycle bin interface. You can find the recycle bin in Windows Explorer also, if you need to retrieve deleted files.

Posted by: Leo at January 4, 2006 9:20 PM

This is what I had to do when I recently loaded a new computer with XP. This may help some, all or none of you, but for what it's worth:

Right click your desktop,
Click on properties,
Click on the appearance tab,
Under the windows and buttons menu: Click on Windows Classic style.

After that, click on the Theme tab and change the theme to windows classic.

Between these two, your recycle bin short cut should return.

You may also find it my right-clicking your start icon and then click explore.
Click on my network places (near the bottom, under document folders).
Scroll to the bottom of the drop down list on the left and Recycle bin should/may be there. You can open it from there, if so.

Posted by: Scott at January 27, 2006 11:59 AM

right click on desktop
select "arrange icons by"
check "show desktop icons"
of course this also turns on the "my computer" icon

Posted by: Reg at April 5, 2006 9:28 AM

DO NOT follow this advice for XP home edition. changing to classic on appearance and themes results in a shut down and reboot, doesn't restore anything

Posted by: daphne at July 17, 2006 8:07 PM

I recently was in the process of searching for my Recycle bin as well... And i came across some advice Which i found quite useful!:

You can get your Recycle Bin back by creating a new folder. Then,
rename it "Recycle.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}". Name the
folder exactly as it appears between the quotes. The name before the
period can be any name but the part after the period must be exactly
the same. After the period is the CLSID identifier that Windows uses
to identify the Recycle Bin.
I'm pretty sure that this is the same CLSID for all of Microsoft's
versions of Windows. If it doesn't work for your version, do a
registry "Value" search for "Recycle Bin". The Key Name for that value
is the CLSID for the Recycle Bin that you need to enter as part of the
folder's name, instead of the one above.

Posted by: Sharon at August 7, 2006 11:01 AM

Thanks for the info sharon ,

I foolishly deleted my recycle bin but I have managed to get it back thank heavens !

by the way renaming the folder recycle followed by them no's on vista beta OS works to ;) just incase anyone is interested .

Posted by: Richard Piper at October 5, 2006 1:53 PM
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