If you are someone who prefers clean and tidy desktop, then pinning the trash can to the taskbar may help.
By pinning the trash can to the taskbar you won't have any desktop icon need more to get the trash can. On the other hand, if you are someone who prefers to have quick access to the Trash, for example also in full screen mode, then you can always access the Trash this way from the taskbar.
In this article, we will go through steps to pin the trash bin to the taskbar. This does not require any third-party tool, you can do this directly from Windows 11 or 10. This is how it works.
Pin Trash to the taskbar in Windows 11 or 10
To get started, right-click on free space on the desktop. Click on “New” and then on “Shortcut”.
In the “Enter the location of the item” field, enter the following path:
%systemroot%\explorer.exe shell:RecycleBinFolder
Now enter a name for the new shortcut that is recognizable as trash.
You now have a new desktop shortcut pointing to the Recycle Bin. Right click on it and click “properties”.
We will now set a recognizable icon for the shortcut. To do this, click on the “Other icon” button.
In the path “Search this file for icons” type and confirm with the ENTER key:
%Systemroot%\System32\Shell32.dll
Then select the trash can icon and click “OK”.
Right-click the shortcut with the new icon again. In Windows 11, first click on “Show more options” and then on “Pin to taskbar”.
You now have the trash bin pinned to the taskbar. Clicking on the trash can shortcut will open the contents of the trash.
I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading! Learn more about what you can pin to the taskbar.
- Pin the power off button to the taskbar.
- Pin Gmail to the taskbar in Windows 11 or 10
- Pin YouTube as an app to the taskbar or Start menu.
- Pin Control Panel to desktop or taskbar.
- Pin “This PC” shortcut to the taskbar.
- Pin hard drive shortcut to the taskbar.
- Pin Windows Explorer to the taskbar in Windows 11/10
- Place shortcut to “downloads” folder on the taskbar.
- Add Hibernate button to the taskbar in Windows 11 or 10
- Add Show Desktop shortcut to the taskbar.
- 4 ways to pin a program to the taskbar.
Dear Stephen,
Thank you very much for the clear explanation. Creating a shortcut & adding it to the taskbar was successful!
However, it might be a good idea to mention at the bottom of your explanation how to remove the original trash can icon from your desktop. I quickly managed to do this after some Googling 😉
Settings -> personal settings -> themes -> desk icon settings -> check trash -> click OK.
Greetings!
When I open it I mean if you delete something you should be able to see it
MVG
To do that, you first have to move something to the trash. After this, open the recycle bin via the taskbar and right-click on the item in the recycle bin and click “delete”. This is how it works. If you don't see anything in the trash then you haven't moved anything to the trash. You may have deleted it directly via an app or by pressing the key combination SHIFT + DELETE, which will skip the move to the Trash.
Success!
Best
I have tried that but when I delete something the folder is always empty
Normally you can see what you are throwing away
mvg
Hi Rene,
you mean you can tell by the icon? The icon on the taskbar is only to open the trash, the icon on the taskbar does not change either. If you mean something else, I'd love to read it.
mvg