The Local Zoo - Microsoft Windows Tips and Tricks

Fixing the Recycle Bin

I got a really strange problem to look at recently. Every time a certain user tried to delete files on her computer, they bypassed the recycle bin and were immediately deleted. Simple, I thought. Right click on the recycle bin, select properties, untick "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted". The only thing was, it was already unticked! I played around in this dialogue for a while, ticking, applying, unticking, applying etc. All to no avail. The registry was no help either. Now when you're at this stage, it's a fair bet that the recycle bin is corrupted. The simple fix for this is as follows : Open a command prompt, type "attrib c:\recycler -h -s" (without the quotes) and hit enter. Then type "del c:\recycler" (again without the quotes), confirming as necessary. Close the command prompt. Hey presto, the recycle bin is recreated automatically by Windows (if not immediately, then on the next reboot), and all is well!! I've been supporting Windows since before the recycle bin was invented, and this is the first time I've come across this particular problem, but it's handy to keep the solution around nevertheless!