Recycle Bin - Pin to Taskbar

How to Pin the Recycle Bin to the Windows 7 Taskbar​

   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 will show you how to create a Recycle Bin shortcut with Empty Recycle Bin in the context menu, and how to pin this shortcut to the taskbar as a toolbar.

   Note

Removable drives do not use or have a Recycyle Bin. Files deleted from removable drives are permanently deleted instead.

EXAMPLE: Recycle Bin Unpinned and Pinned from the Taskbar





Here's How:
1. Make sure the Recycle Bin is on the desktop.

2. Right click on the desktop and select New and Folder , then rename it anything you like. (i.e. Trash Bin)

3. Drag & drop the Recycle Bin on the new Folder to create a shortcut.
NOTE: You could also Pin to Start Menu this new Recycle Bin shortcut by pressing and holding Shift, then right click on the shortcut, and click on Pin to Start Menu.

4. Save the new Folder (containing Recycle Bin shortcut) to the directory of your choice (i.e. C:\Trash Bin) by dragging and dropping.

5. UnLock the taskbar.

6. Right-click on the taskbar and select Toolbar and New toolbar...

7. Navigate to the location you saved the New Folder (Ex: Trash Bin), select it and click on the Select Folder button.

8. This places the new Toolbar and a Separator (dotted lines) on the taskbar.

9. Right click on the Separator and uncheck Show Text and Show Title.

10. Right click on the Separator and select View and Large Icons.

11. You now have the Recycle Bin pinned to the taskbar.

12. To Keep the Recycle Bin on Right Side of Taskbar
A) Left click on the Separator to the left of the folder and hold, then drag it to the left and right to make any adjustments to how you want the Recycle Bin positioned on the right side of the taskbar. (See screenshot above)

B) Release the left click when done.

C) Go to step 14.
13. To Have the Recycle Bin on Left Side of Taskbar
A) Left click on the Separator of the pinned taskbar programs on the far left side and hold, then drag it to the right past the Recycle Bin and release. (See screenshot below)

B) Left click on the Separator of the pinned taskbar programs on the now right side and hold, then drag it to the left next to the Recycle Bin and release. (See screenshot below)

14. Lock the taskbar.

15. Remove the Recycle Bin from the desktop.

   Note

You do know that when you drag & drop copied shortcuts from the Start Menu in with the Recycle Bin shortcut, that those automatically become Quick Launch items beside the Recycle Bin. By doing it that way you can "kill two birds with one stone".(See screenshot below)

Enjoy,

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Backup and Restore Taskbar Toolbars in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Pin or Unpin a Program to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Taskbar Pinned Programs
• How to Allow or Prevent the Windows 7 Recycle Bin Icon to Display
• How to Add or Remove a Default Desktop Icon in Windows 7
• How to Pin Your User Files Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Pin the Control Panel to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Change the Windows 7 Pinned Windows Explorer Taskbar Icon Open To Target
• How to Pin Computer to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Pin or Unpin a Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Show or Not Show All Folders in the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add Empty Recycle Bin to the Windows 7 Desktop Context Menu
• How to Rename the "Recycle Bin" in Windows 7
• How to Add or Remove "Recycle Bin" from Desktop Context Menu
• How to Change the Recycle Bin Storage Size in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Add or Remove the "Recycle Bin" from the Windows 7 Navigation Pane
• How to Add or Remove Recycle Bin from Favorites in Navigation Pane in Windows
• How to Fix Corrupted Recycle Bin in Windows

 

[gohardsupreme]

using the small icon works, its not as nice as the big one but it does the trick

 

[Brink]

Gohardsupreme,

I'm happy that will do the trick for you. Sorry that there doesn't seem to be another workaround for it.

 

[gohardsupreme]

thanks for the help its not a big deal. i can deal with it

 

[HughShaw]

Thanks for the tip! I tried adding rep, but it won't let me for some reason...

 

[coolfire]

Solid! Now my desktop is totally cleared!

 

[SouLord]

Really useful thanks

 

[Nburnes]

All I did was pin it inside my Windows Explorer and it works fine for me.

But thanks for the tutorial, seems like I will have to try it out sometime.

 

[Nefarious]

Thanks!

 

[Aarkan]

hey i have a problem, i pinned the recycle bin already it now it wont delete from my desktop

 

[myzr7]

Aarkan Welcome to SevenForums
Did you follow the link provided in step number 15 of the tutorial? You must unselect recycle bin from default desktop icons. Good luck to you.

 

[Aarkan]

thanks!

lol, i hadn't seen the note XD, thanks alot for the tutorial!

 

[myzr7]

Your welcome. I like this tweek as I have no icons on the desktop. If I find that I need to I can put a icon in the toolbar part of this and use it as a quick launch bar. Enjoy!

 

[alwinwinjoe]

Thank you very much! This tutorial has made my desktop cleaner now.

 

[Barefoot]

It's made me want to empty the trash every time I see the icon in the taskbar!

 

[Dunadar]

i meant cant we change the the recycle bin icon (like use a different icon, not using the small icon option) that is 40pixels high? would that solve the problem?

No matter what is the size of the icon if you set large icons the height of the task bar is increased and the gap will always be there.
As a proof try to enable the toolbar "links" that by default is empty and set large icons. The gap will be created. And btw the gap disappears magically if you unlock the toolbar, increase height, move it to the opposite side of the screen, resize it to minimum height and move it back to the original position. The problem is that when you reboot the gap reappears.
So it is a stupid bug that was reported to microsoft before the final release.
This and the fact that you can't pin whatever you want to the taskbar (among the other problems) shows that microsoft programmers are not passionate about what they do.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Ok so I did this, was able to make the icon show up on the toolbar, hid the folder with the shortcut in it in the c: drive, but when I right click the icon on my toolbar to empty it, I'm given all of these other BS options, but not the one to empty it...



EDIT:
Now out of no where the icon I made for the dock has disappeared?

 

[Brink]

Hello Johnny,

Did you delete or move the folder (step 4) that you created afterwards?

 

[LongJnSilver]

Hi, All. I'm running Win 7 in a Bootcamp partition on my MacBook Pro (FUN FOR PC GAMING!). I have the tastbar on the Mac side on the RIGHT of the screen - and have put the Win 7 one there too. BUT, now that I have my Win 7 Recycle Bin on the Taskbar - it is not centered - is on the far left and makes the Taskbar 1/3 fatter than it needs to be. Any way to change that?
Thanks! LongJnSilver

 

[derekimo]

Hi, All. I'm running Win 7 in a Bootcamp partition on my MacBook Pro (FUN FOR PC GAMING!). I have the tastbar on the Mac side on the RIGHT of the screen - and have put the Win 7 one there too. BUT, now that I have my Win 7 Recycle Bin on the Taskbar - it is not centered - is on the far left and makes the Taskbar 1/3 fatter than it needs to be. Any way to change that?
Thanks! LongJnSilver

On step 10 of this tutorial it shows how to change the icon size to view small.

 

[LongJnSilver]

icons are small already - it's the toolbar

It's the toolbar itself that is too wide - wider than it needs to be to
house the icons if I could get them to line up in the middle. I guess I'm
being too picky. - LongJnSilver -