1. Open the Start menu and type “cmd”
  2. Type “regedit” and hit enter
  3. In the “regedit” window, find and open the “windows folder” (C:\Windows\system32)
  4. Copy the following text into the “windows folder” (C:\Windows\system32): userinit.exe /s /f Recycle Bin

Windows Vista

Select the option called “Desktop icons” and then click on the “Create a new icon” button. In the new icon dialog box, enter a name for your new icon and click on the “Create” button.

If you have a desktop icon that you want to keep on your desktop, but don’t want it to show up in the Recycle Bin, check the box to add it back. You’ll notice that there is a Full Recycle Bin and Empty Recycle Bin icon.

If you have an issue with the Recycle Bin not working properly, try clicking Apply again. If that doesn’t work, you may need to reset your computer. ..

If you have this problem where the recycle bin icon does not change to reflect “full” and “empty” then you need to first check off Recycle Bin icon. Then go ahead and left click on the Recycle Bin full icon and click Change Icon. Select the already highlighted icon, which should be the full Recycle Bin icon. Do the same thing with the empty Recycle Bin icon and go ahead and click Apply. ..

The new Recycle Bin icon should now be on your desktop and will automatically update based on whether there is data in the trash or not. ..

Windows 7 & 8

In Windows 7, the process is slightly different for recovering your recycle bin icon. First, click on Start and then type in desktop icons. Go ahead and click on the recycle bin icon to see if it is hidden or shown on the desktop. If it is hidden, you can click on the arrow next to it to show it. If it is shown on the desktop, you can right-click on it and select “Show as icon.”

This will bring up the same dialog similar to the one in Windows Vista where you can just check Recycle Bin to bring it back to your desktop. On Windows 8, you click on the pseudo Start button and start just typing desktop icons. The Charms bar will appear on the right with the search results.

This will bring up the dialog box that appears when you try to recycle a file on Windows 7. There are not many other ways to get the recycle bin back, but there are a couple of tricks I’ve learned over time.

If you delete a file in Windows by holding down the CTRL key, it will instead go into the Recycle Bin. This is an option you should only use if you are certain you won’t need to recover the file later on. ..

You can right-click on the recycle bin, choose Properties and configure a couple of options like the size of the recycle bin and whether or not you want to see the delete confirmation dialog. If you have a small hard drive like an SSD, then reducing the size of the recycle bin can save you quite a bit of space.

If you’re having any other trouble restoring your recycle bin icon, feel free to post a comment and we’ll try to help. Enjoy!