How to Find Vista’s Lost, Hidden, or Deleted Recycle Bin

How to Find Vista’s Lost, Hidden, or Deleted Recycle BinFinding a deleted Recycle bin in Vista

It was probably Mr Nobody who deleted your Vista recycle bin.  Rather than worrying about who did it, let us concentrate on how to recover the recycle bin, complete with rubbish! 

Once we have found the deleted recycle bin, to prevent any more accidents, let us, see how we can resize the desktop icons by scrolling the mouse.

Quick Instructions to Find the Lost Recycle Bin

1) right-click the Vista Desktop
2) Click on Personalize
3) Select: ‘Change desktop icons’
4) At the Desktop Icon Settings, place a tick next to: ‘Recycle Bin’.
(Instructions for Lost Windows 7 Recycle Bin)

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Step-by-Step Instructions to Find a Deleted Vista Recycle Bin

1) right-click in a clear area of the Vista Desktop.

Vista Personalize

2) Click on Personalize from the short cut menu.

3) To find the lost recycle bin, select: ‘Change desktop icons’

Note: Look under ‘Tasks’ (See screenshot below)

Windows Vista - Find lost recycle bin icon

4)At the Desktop Icon Settings, place a tick next to: ‘Recycle Bin’.  Your deleted recycle bin should now reappear on the Vista desktop.  The bin will still have the same rubbish as when Mr Nobody deleted it.

Vista Desktop Icon Settings

While you are at the Desktop Icon Settings, you could consider placing a tick next to Computer or even Control Panel.

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Trick: Resize Desktop IconsWindows Vista Resize Desktop IconsFinding a deleted Recycle bin

Here is a trick with mouse.  Click on the Vista desktop, while the mouse key is depressed hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key, now scroll the mouse wheel.  See how the Vista Desktop Icons resize.  Observe the two screen shots to the right, compare the relative size of the text ‘Recycle Bin’ with size of the bin icons.

See more on Windows 8 Lost Recycle bin.

Tips for the Recycle Bin

You can bypass the recycle bin by holding down the Ctrl key while delete a file, folder or other item.  However, this is dangerous as it removes the safety net normally associated with the Recycle Bin.

If you right-click the Recycle Bin then you can tune it’s size and decide whether or not you want to see a warning message when you delete stuff.

I expect that you will soon notice the different appearance of the empty and full recycle bins, it is also possible to change the icon associated with the bin.

  1. Right-click the Desktop
  2. Click on Personalize
  3. Select: ‘Change desktop icons’
  4. To alter the Recycle Bin’s appearance, click Change Icon. Select an icon from the list, and then click OK.

If you are getting short on free diskspace, then call for the Disk Cleanup agent.  right-click any drive in Windows Explorer and look for the Disk Cleanup button.

Summary of How to Find Vista’s Lost, Hidden, or Deleted Recycle Bin

If you lose your Vista Recycle Bin, have faith that it’s just hidden and not lost or permanently deleted.  Next seek the ‘Personalize settings, the trickiest part is finding the ‘Change desktop icons’ menu.  Tip, look under Tasks.

 

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