The Recycle Bin has been a fixture of the Windows desktop since the launch of Windows 95 more than 20 years ago. For many users, the Recycle Bin’s presence on the desktop provides a quick way to view and restore deleted files, or to send files to their doom by emptying it.
But not every user wants or needs the Recycle Bin on their desktop, perhaps because they’ve disabled its functionality in Windows, or because they prefer a clean desktop with minimal or no icons. If you find yourself in this latter category of users, here’s how you can remove the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop in Windows 10.
Removing the Recycle Bin from the Windows 10 Desktop
- To get started, right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize.
- Then, select Themes from the list of subsections on the left.
- Next, click on Desktop icon settings on the right-side of the window.
- Another new window, labeled Desktop Icon Settings, will appear. In the Desktop Icons section at the top of the window, you’ll see checkboxes for all of the familiar Windows system icons. In a typical Windows 10 installation, only Recycle Bin will be checked.
- Go ahead and uncheck the box next to Recycle Bin and then click Apply at the bottom of the window to hide the Recycle Bin from your Windows 10 desktop. You’ll see that the Recycle Bin icon instantly disappears.
Note that hiding the Recycle Bin icon doesn’t disable or change the Recycle Bin functionality in Windows 10. The Recycle Bin will still exist in the background and catch your deleted files according to your size and duration preferences.
Accessing the Recycle Bin
Now that you’ve removed it from your desktop, you’re probably wondering how you can access it. Let’s go over that now.
- To access or empty the Recycle Bin after hiding its icon on your desktop, launch a new File Explorer window and then type “Recycle Bin” into the File Explorer address bar. This will take you directly to the Recycle Bin and show you any files within.
Alternatively, you can reverse the steps above to temporarily restore the Recycle Bin icon, then right-click on it and choose Pin to Start. This will create a Recycle Bin tile in your Windows 10 Start Menu.
Desktop Icon Removal
As you’ve now seen, removing the Recycle Bin from your Windows 10 desktop is fairly straight forward.
Did you run into any problems removing the Recycle Bin? Do you know of another solution? Share your thoughts below.
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3 thoughts on “How to Remove Recycle Bin from the Windows 10 Desktop”
What should I do?
Second, it seems to me that if the installation of Windows 10 was corrupted, it would affect more than just the recycle bin. I just does not seem likely that only the recycle bin would be corrupted, when every other function of the OS is working as expected. In fact, I have practically no other issues with Windows 10 on that machine. As the recycle bin occupies just a few kilobytes on the hard drive, it seems like overkill to backup everything on that machine and do a full wipe and reinstall of Windows 10.
Third, surely there is a way to get an installer that will install the recycle bin. As it is not a very large app, it would of course take just seconds to install. The only other option would be to contact Microsoft and ask that they provide information on how to get the recycle bin back. Getting answers from them is (in my experience) a long wait.
There is the option of going back to Windows 7 on that machine, but I really don’t want to. I want both of my machines running the same OS, to keep compatibility between them at its best possible.
Therefore, if your assessment and description of the situation is accurate, something in the core Windows process on your PC is wrong, which suggests the existence of other issues that occurred during the upgrade or installation, even if those issues haven’t yet been noticeable. Windows is incredibly complex, and a corrupted or misconfigured file will not necessarily bring the system down or be overtly noticeable unless you were fully engaged with every single feature in the operating system.
You’re free to do, or not do, anything you want. But if you’ve truly tried all of the suggested tips as you indicate and you can’t find or navigate to the Recycle Bin even in File Explorer, then there’s no simple way to just “reinstall” the Recycle Bin. You could try a Windows Refresh, which is supposed to keep your files intact while fixing only the Windows system files, but it’s not guaranteed to fix the problem nor leave all of your files and apps unaffected.
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