What the heck happened to my trash can / recycle bin in Windows 10? It’s not on my Desktop! How do I get it back, Dave?
In Microsoft‘s continuing efforts to lead the industry in green practices, Windows 10 now has a default configuration of zero waste, so there is no more trash can or recycle bin. The intention is for you to save electrons by not creating files, images, and documents in the first place. Want to download something? Just look at it online instead. They figure it’ll save 130 terabytes of disk space every day!
Just kidding! Microsoft hasn’t gotten rid of the delete feature!
Different people have very different expectations of how their computer should look, and so there are all sorts of ways you can customize your Windows desktop, whether you’re running Windows XP (but you shouldn’t be!), Windows Vista, or even the latest, Windows 10. One of these options is to have external drives, the trash can icon (oops, “recycle bin” icon) and others show up on your Desktop. Or not!
Sounds like you just have your recycle bin hidden. Easily fixed!
To start, as always, search Cortana. This time, search for “desktop icon“:
Choose “Themes and related settings” as it’s the closest we can get from this point in Win10.
Here’s the Window that pops up:
Plenty of things you can change if you want to customize your Desktop color, wallpaper, cursor size, etc, but hold on, because what you want to click on to fix your Recycle Bin mystery isn’t actually visible.
Scroll down a bit instead and find this option near the bottom of the Window:
Finally, that’s what you want. Click on “Desktop icon settings“, and here you’ll be in an old-school preferences window, but you can see where it’s easy to enable or hide the recycle bin:
Simply click the checkboxes associated with the “Recycle Bin” and anything else you’d like to have show up on your Desktop. And yes, most people don’t know, but you can also have a “Control Panel” icon available too if you like to fiddle with settings and preferences.
And that’s it. Click “Apply” and your Recycle Bin will reappear on your Desktop.
Sometimes, as was my case, when using additional screens, parts of the desktop can jump to the new screen. Mine was only missing when in medium size mod and I found it when I went to medium on the other screen.
If this does not work, physically type “Recycle Bin” into the address bar of Windows Explorer. Then click the small black arrow next to Recycle Bin in the address bar and click on Desktop. The Recycle Bin should be in there. Right click on the icon and select Create Shortcut. You should now have a shortcut on your desktop.
Thanks – everything else didn’t work until I followed your tip!
This tip is almost spot on! I found and was able to empty the recycle bin following your instructions. However, right-clicking did not have the option to Create Shortcut, but did have the option to ‘Add to Quick Access Toolbar’ (aka Action Pane, Ribbon). Also, clicking the Home tab in has the option to pin the Recycle Bin to Quick Access (the left-hand navigation pane). So now it’s on the Windows Explorer toolbar and that’s actually a better place than on the desktop for me. Unintended continuous improvement…:)
Thank you! This was actually the solution while everything else didn’t work.
Did not work. I had the recycle bin originally, Windows updated the video driver and now its gone. Selecting and/or deselecting the recycle bin in desktop icons makes no difference. Neither does rebooting. ANY ideas would be appreciated.
Never mind… I again unselected recycle bin but also unselected EVERYTHING ELSE TOO. i applied the changes, then went back and selected what I wanted. That worked for some reason..
You are my hero. Nothing else worked but what you suggested. Thx!
I want to install recycle bin