Empty Recycle Bin - Add to Desktop Context Menu

How to Add "Empty Recycle Bin" to Desktop Context Menu in Windows 7 and Windows 8​

   Information

The Recycle Bin provides a safety net when deleting files or folders. When you delete any of these items from your hard disk, Windows places it in the Recycle Bin and the Recycle Bin icon changes from empty to full.

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove Empty Recycle Bin from the desktop context menu for all users on the computer in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial, but all users will be able to use the "Empty Recycle Bin" context menu item.

Here's How:
1. To Add "Empty Recycle Bin" to the Top of the Desktop Context Menu
A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Add_Empty_Recycle_Bin_top_Desktop_Context_Menu.reg

Download




2. To Add "Empty Recycle Bin" to the Bottom of the Desktop Context Menu
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Add_Empty_Recycle_Bin_bottom_Desktop_Context_Menu.reg

Download




3. To Remove "Empty Recycle Bin" from the Desktop Context Menu
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Remove_Empty_Recycle_Bin_Desktop_Context_Menu.reg

Download


4. Save the REG file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the REG file to merge it,.

6. If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK.

7. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg file on the desktop if you like.

8. Now right click on your Desktop to see the change.


That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Fix Corrupted Recycle Bin in Windows
• How to Pin the Recycle Bin to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Allow or Prevent the Windows 7 Recycle Bin Icon to Display
• How to Turn the Recycle Bin Delete Confirmation On or Off
• How to Set the Windows 7 Recycle Bin to Permanently Delete Items Immediately
• How to Add or Remove Properties from Recycle Bin Context Menu
• How to Rename the "Recycle Bin" in Windows 7
• How to Add or Remove "Recycle Bin" from Desktop Context Menu
• How to Add or Remove the "Recycle Bin" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Change Recycle Bin Maximum Storage Size in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows 8 and 8.1

 

[midgo]

Thank you for this it now works well.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Midgo.

 

[licalis]

oh my God,,,this is really work,,,thank you very much,,,it's a GREAT job

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Licalis, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[sHAKaJaada]

Great! Thx Brink!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome sHAKaJaada, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[soulcoma]

Old thread, but if anyone sees this, I accidentally deleted the 'empty recycle bin' option in the context menu. I added a hack so it shows in the context menu on the desktop right click, but I can't find the shell command to re-add in the registry to get it back in my Recycle Bin menu. Anyone help?

 

[Brink]

Hello soulcoma,

Downloading and merging the .reg file I created below should restore Empty Recycle Bin back to the Recycle Bin context menu for you.

 

[soulcoma]

Thank you! You are a God! I created another post since this one was so old and someone took the time to send me a Vishal Reg File that looked like it would work. It didn't, even on reboot. Yours did. Thanks again.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Glad it could help.

Yeah, I've seen the other removed duplicate thread. The .reg file in it would have only added "Empty Recycle Bin" to the desktop background like in the tutorial here. It wasn't for what you wanted.

 

[TomHartwald]

Empty the Recycle Bin without Confirmation Dialog


This dialog is really annoying me:
In 99% of all cases where I accidentally deleted something I wanted to keep,
I used [Shift+Del] from the keyboard, so the dialog is not really helpful for me,
only consuming my time.

I found a little patch to get rid of it here
How to Disable the Empty Recycle Bin Confirmation Box in Windows 7 - The Winhelponline Blog
but it only works with right-clicking the Recycle Bin, not with this nice Context Menu patch.

So I modified the original ".reg" file to get it work (Version with entry at bottom of context menu) :

[B]Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[/B]

; Executed silently (No Confirmation Dialog) with NirCmd

[B][HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\empty][/B]
"CommandStateHandler"="{c9298eef-69dd-4cdd-b153-bdbc38486781}"
"Description"="@shell32.dll,-31332"
"Icon"="shell32.dll,-254"
"MUIVerb"="@shell32.dll,-10564"
"Position"="Bottom"

[B][HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\empty\[COLOR=Blue]command[/COLOR]][/B]
"DelegateExecute"=""
@="nircmd.exe emptybin"

Note: Only the original line below "command" is exchanged with the two new lines.

You now need the NirCmd - Windows command line tool
in your "C:\Windows\System32" folder, it's described for example here in the Forum :
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/196071-eject-close-cd-dvd-tray-add-desktop-context-menu.html


Regards,
Tom

 

[TomHartwald]

Addition :

Strange, I did a System Recovery to a state before that patch, so I had
to re-apply it, and I only now noticed, that I can change the used icon too:

:warn:
As always, be careful when playing around with the Registry,
make a backup copy before applying any patches !


Start RegEdit and navigate to
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\empty]

In the left pane click on "empty", then in the right pane
double-click (or use rigth-click > Edit) on "Icon"
and replace "shell32.dll,-254" with the path to your icon, e.g.

"C:\Users\Public\My_Icons\Trash_Context_Menu.ico"
(use quotes if you have any spaces in your path).


But now I wanted to change the original icon in the context menu
of Recycle Bin to my icon too ...

That can be done easyly if you had applied the patch from
How to Disable the Empty Recycle Bin Confirmation Box in Windows 7 - The Winhelponline Blog

Start RegEdit and navigate to
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\shell\empty]

In the left pane click on "empty", then in the right pane
right-click on an empty space and select "New > String Value" (REG_SZ),
and name it "Icon". Use the path to your icon as data.


Regards,
Tom

 

[Brink]

Hey Tom,

Instead of going through all that to change the Recycle Bin icon, you could just use this below to change it's icon the "Desktop Icon Settings" UI.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/920-desktop-icons-change-restore-default-icon.html


As for the context menu in this tutorial, you could edit the .reg file to change the part in red below with the full path of the .ico file you wanted instead.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\empty]
"CommandStateHandler"="{c9298eef-69dd-4cdd-b153-bdbc38486781}"
"Description"="@shell32.dll,-31332"
"Icon"="[B][COLOR=red]shell32.dll,-254[/COLOR][/B]"
"MUIVerb"="@shell32.dll,-10564"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\empty\command]
"DelegateExecute"="{48527bb3-e8de-450b-8910-8c4099cb8624}"

 

[TomHartwald]

Hi Shawn,

to be honest, I already patched the ".reg" file in case I had to redo it again ...

I only used the descriped method cause the ".reg" patch was applied and I wanted
to test, if my change would work before editing the ".reg" file.
(Uhh, it's Windows, so you never know ... )


And btw, I also already changed my Recycle Bin icon to my old favorite
from Windows ME, using the "Desktop Icon Settings",

but that didn't change the small icon in the Recycle Bin context menu.

Should it change that too, another bug in Windows, or is it again just
me experiencing strange side effects ??

Anyway, I got what I wanted, so I'm happy again, enjoying this Forum.


Thanks for taking care,
Tom


P.S.
Still working on how to add an icon to a context menu entry made by the system,
like ""Open file location" or the "New" sub-menu here
http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/310748-add-icon-context-menu-entry-made-system.html
but that seems to be a little bit more complicated (or impossible) ...

 

[Brink]

Nar, the context menu uses it's own separate icon specified by the "Icon" string value in the .reg file.

Glad you got what you wanted though.

 

[TomHartwald]

Yeah, it's a little bit confusing with all the icons in different .dll's.

Seems that Windows uses imageres.dll #54 and #55
for his Recycle Bin, containing the 256x256 size, while
shell32.dll #254 has only a maximum size of 32x32.

 

[mehdircm]

Hello soulcoma,

Downloading and merging the .reg file I created below should restore Empty Recycle Bin back to the Recycle Bin context menu for you.

buddy thanks a lot

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Mehdircm, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[igeorge]

Unfortunately did not works for me

Hello,
I have windows 7/64 ultimate.
I did everything i could , including SFC or clean registry.
When i right click on recycle bin i do not have the option to empty.
I can manually empty but it is not on the menu.
I have the option when i right click on the desktop.
It does clean it, BUT, the ICON stay the same as FULL.
If i refresh the desktop, icon does not change.
Please help as it drive me crazy
Thank you very much