3 Ways to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows 10

Do you delete all files in the Recycle Bin to empty it on Windows 10 computer? In this article, you can learn three effective methods to empty Recycle Bin. Just read on to find them.

Video guide on how to empty Recycle Bin in Windows 10:

How to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows 10

Way 1: Empty it in its Manage menu.

Open Recycle Bin, click Manage on the menu bar and choose Empty Recycle Bin.

Way 2: Clean Recycle Bin in its Context Menu.

Right-tap Recycle Bin, and select Empty Recycle Bin in the menu.

Way 3: Empty it in Settings.

Step 2: Choose System to continue.

Step 3: Open Storage, and select This PC (or a hard drive) under Storage.

Step 4: Click Temporary files and recycle bin.

Step 5: Choose Empty recycle bin and tap Delete.

How To Quickly Empty Recycle Bin From All User Accounts

Last Updated on March 9, 2020 by admin 8 Comments

On one of my test computers and I have created three user accounts to easily share that PC with my family. Except for my user account, rest two accounts do not have a password. So, I can easily access other accounts, if required.

Recently I noticed that the “C” drive was running out of free space and so decided to free up some disk space by emptying Recycle Bin and then deleting other junk files on my desktop. To empty Recycle Bin present in other accounts, I decided to use a good old command that lets you quickly empty Recycle Bin from all user accounts in a jiffy.

The command comes in handy if you are the administrator of a multi-user Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer. In this guide, I will show you how to use the Command Prompt to quickly empty Recycle Bin from all user accounts:

IMPORTANT: Use this command with caution. Executing wrongly typed command may cause damage to your system and data.

Delete Recycle Bin data from all user accounts

Step 1: Launch elevated Prompt. To do this, type CMD in the Start menu search box and simultaneously press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys. Windows 8 users can simply type CMD in the Start screen and then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch Command Prompt with admin rights.

Step 2: In the elevated prompt, type the following command:

rd /s c:\$Recycle.Bin

(In the above command, “c” is your Windows drive)

Press enter key.

Press Y key to confirm and empty Recycle Bin. You are done! Type Exit and press enter key again to close the Prompt.

There might be some other third-party tools to do this job, but this is the easiest way to empty Recycle Bin and free up some disk space. We tested this command in Windows 8 as well and can confirm that it works!

How to Empty Recycle Bin on Windows 10 PC

The Recycle Bin is the temporary storage for files that have been deleted in a file manager by the user but not yet permanently erased from the file system. Items in the Recycle Bin still take up hard disk space, and can be restored to their original location. If you want to free up disk space in a real sense, you need to empty the Recycle Bin. Now, we will show you five different ways to empty the Recycle Bin in Windows 10.

How to Empty the Recycle Bin on Desktop

If you have shown Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop, follow these steps:

Step 1: Find the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop.

Step 2: Right-click (or press and hold) and select Empty Recycle Bin.

Tips: If you have added Desktop toolbar to Taskbar, you can easily Empty Recycle Bin from Desktop toolbar.

How to Empty Recycle Bin in Storage Settings

Remove file of Recycle Bin in Settings, here is how:

Step 1: Open Settings app, click System > Storage.

Step 2: Click on This PCВ and then scroll down the list andВ chooseВ Temporary files.

Step 3: Click onВ Temporary files.

Step 4: Under Remove temporary files, select theВ Empty recycle binВ checkbox and thenВ chooseВ Remove files button.

How to Empty Recycle Bin using Disk Cleanup

Windows. old folder contains a copy of the previous Windows installation in C: disk, and it takes up much of storage. It can free up several GBs of disk space by using theВ Remove previous Windows installationsВ option in Disk Cleanup Tool.

Step 1: Open the Disk Cleanup tool in the Run.

Press Win+R keys to open Run dialog, type cleanmgr, and then hit Enter key.

Wait while the system is calculating the amount of the used space.

Step 2: Once the tool opens, click Clean up system file button.

Step 3: Scroll down till you seeВ Recycle Bin. Check this option and click on OK.

Step 4: Click on Delete FilesВ to complete the task.

How to Empty Recycle Bin in File Explorer Ribbon

Step 1: Open theВ Recycle Bin.

Step 2:В Click on the Recycle Bin Tools Manage tab, and click onВ Empty Recycle BinВ in the ribbon then click onВ Empty Recycle Bin.

How to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows PowerShell

Step 1: Open the Windows PowerShell in Run.

Press theВ Win+RВ keys to open Run dialog. TypeВ powershell, and click onВ OK.

Step 2: Execute the command below you want to use into PowerShell and press Enter.

Empty Recycle Bin for all drives: Clear-RecycleBin -force -ErrorAction:Ignore

To empty Recycle Bin for specific drives: Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetterВ В -force -ErrorAction:Ignore

How to empty the recycle bin on your Windows 10 computer in 3 ways

Whenever a Windows 10 PC user deletes a file on their computer, it isn’t technically gone per se.

Sure, the data is no longer in its original location, but it still exists in the recycle bin, allowing users who may have accidentally deleted a file to recover the data without losing anything vital.

Of course, there is no default way that the recycle bin can vet and gets rid of deleted files, so cleaning it out every now and then allows for less clutter.

Here are three different ways to empty your recycle bin in Windows 10.

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How to empty the recycle bin on your Windows 10 computer using the «Manage» menu

1. Power on your Windows 10 computer and open your recycle bin.

2. Click on the «Manage» tab located in the menu bar and click «Empty Recycle Bin.»

How to empty the recycle bin on your Windows 10 computer using the «contextual» menu

1. Power on your Windows 10 computer and right-click on your recycle bin to open the contextual menu.

2. Click «Empty Recycle Bin» to empty your recycle bin.

How to empty the recycle bin on your Windows 10 computer using your settings

1. Click the «Windows» icon at the bottom of the screen and then click «Settings.» Next, choose «System.»

2. In your system settings, click on the «Storage» tab, then click on «Temporary files.» This will open up a new page showing all of the temporary files on your computer.

3. Click the «Recycle Bin» check box, then click «Remove files» and wait for your computer to delete any files in your recycle bin.

How to Empty the Recycle Bin on Windows

Amy Dennis

Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Recover & Repair Files • Proven solutions

When using Windows to delete items or files in your computer to create more space in your hard drive, the files are not deleted. Your files are temporarily stored by the recycle bin, but if you go further to empty the recycle bin, the files cease to exist in the recycle bin. Also, the recycle bin utilizes a certain amount of its space to store deleted content. When this space is limited, old files are deleted to create room for new ones. That is why you may find your file missing in the recycle even if you never emptied it. Here we will show you how to empty a recycle bin on Windows and how to recover deleted files from the recycle bin after empty.

Part 1: How to Empty Recycle Bin on Windows

Step 1. Right-click on your recycle bin

Select the recycle bin on your windows desktop and right-click on it. Your screen will display a dialogue box like this

Step 2. Select empty recycle bin

From the dialogue box on the right-hand side of the recycle bin, choose an empty to recycle bin.

Step 3. Empty the Recycle Bin

From the delete multiple items dialogue box, confirm by clicking YES. You will see a progress dialogue box showing the ongoing deletion process. Items in your recycle bin will disappear one by one. This will only take a few minutes given the number of items in your recycle bin.

Note that you can still retrieve your files after the recycle bin has completed deleting them permanently.

Part 2: How to Recover Files from Emptied Recycle Bin

To retrieve all files, which you had permanently deleted from the recycle bin, you require effective file recovery software. Recoverit is one of the best data recovery tools I know. It also allows you to recovers other files which were previously formatted or lost from the computed due to corrupt system and other removable devices like digital cameras, memory cards, and flash disks.

Recoverit — Your Best Data Recovery for Recycle Bin

• Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely and completely.
• Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorders.
• Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.

Video Tutorial on How to Recover Files from Emptied Recycle Bin

Download your copy of recovery for windows, install and run it on your computer. Follow the next steps to recovering deleted files from empty recycle bin. More importantly, DO NOT install this software on the disk where files and data where you can lose.

Step 1. Choose a data lost scenario to be recovered

Select the data scenario which you want the program to retrieve. You can also select the option «All-Around Recovery» to start.

Step 2. Scan Recycle Bin

You will need a quick scan of the empty to recycle bin. If the quick scan can’t find your deleted files, you can try «All-Around Recovery». With «All-Around Recovery» will deep search more files from the recycle bin but it will take more time.

Step 3. Recover your lost files

If you have selected All files in the previous in step 2, the retrieved files will be shown in file categories like archives, database, graphics, email, video, audio, and the like. These file categories are recovered after previewing. For PPT, RAR, Excel, PDF, and photos including and not limited to JPG, PNG, and TIF are previewed prior recovery process.

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All You Need to Know About Recycle Bins:

Recycle bins are just like any other trash, collection bins you can think of. However, this kind of bin is unique since it is digitalized and whatever files trashed can be restored. Occasionally, when the recycle bin is accidentally emptied on the Windows, the items can be recovered using the best data recovery tool. Also due to the limited space in the recycle bin on Windows, it lost old files in the trash when new files are added. Never panic when your files are lost, they can still be recovered.

When the recycle bin does not appear on your Windows desktop, it is hidden. It is easy to restore it to the desktop without difficulty. The thing is you don’t need to be a computer expert to make you recycle bin reappear. Follow the correct steps and be sure the recycle bin icon will show on your screen. Then, you can empty the recycle bin on Windows after.