Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
While there are many reasons as to why your Recycle Bin can disappear, there is a fairly easy way to get it back.
My desktop Recycle Bin has disappeared - why, and how, do I get it back?
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Windows Vista Users: please see this article: I accidentally deleted my Recycle Bin in Vista - how do I get it back? |
Why is a good question. The recycle bin can certainly be hidden, but exactly how or why it disappeared is hard to say.
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Getting it back is fairly easy. The quickest is probably to download and install Tweak UI, one of the "Power Toys" available from Microsoft. Run that, and the Desktop section allows you to select which icons to show on the desktop by default. You should be able to turn the recycle bin back on there.
Article C2116 - July 11, 2004
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
thank you so much! for the longest time i have been looking for my recycle bin, i didn't even know that i accidentally deleted it! lol ;p now i already recovered it and it is full! i've freed up 8gb of memory just by emptying my recycle bin. THANKS to u!
Posted by: sashsa at September 26, 2008 3:50 AMyou only give a link for xp if i had a similiar problem but with vista how would i fix it. And do you know a way to find out why it went, as this morning i turned on my computer and it was gone with me being the only one with access to it and i know for sure i didn't delete it.
05-Oct-2008
even easier way to do this, without downloading bloated software!!
Posted by: kenny at October 9, 2008 12:01 AMThere is a new option in Vista which allows you to delete the recycle bin.
If you want it back do the following:
-->control panel
-->appearance and personalization
-->personalization
-->change desktop icons
then select the icons you want on the desktop
It wasn't my recycle bin that disappeared from my desktop, it was the Google gadget date/time clock that disappeared. With the same stroke, the Google search line on my taskbar disappeared. I had just clicked on the Google icon to see if I could ask an unrelated question when both these items, which I use constantly, disappeared.
Posted by: Bombay Granny at October 17, 2008 4:41 PMI spent nearly an hour trying to ask Google online what happened and how to get them back, but there was no option to ask an open-ended question that wasn't already listed in their Help sections. Can anyone tell me now to get them back? I would think re-downloading them would just take up more space, so I just want to find them. Thanks in advance for your help.
09-Nov-2008