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Pin Recycle Bin on the Taskbar

Published in Multiple CategoriesWindows 7 How-To
Windows 7 User Interface Tweaks
 by Steve Sinchak with 37,972 views and 14 comments

The new taskbar in Windows 7 does not allow you to pin anything directly on the taskbar by default. If you tried to pin Recycle Bin already you would have noticed that it is pinned under the Windows Explorer program instead of a separate icon. In order to pin it directly on the taskbar you have to know a few tricks. In the end, your will have a dedicated Recycle Bin shortcut pinned directly on the taskbar as shown below.

The secret is creating a special shortcut that you can pin to the taskbar that points to the recycle bin:

  1. Right click anywhere on your desktop and select New and then shortcut.
  2. In the location of the item box type in:

    %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe shell:RecycleBinFolder
  3. Click Next.
  4. For the name type in Recycle Bin.
  5. Then click Finish. 
  6. Now your shortcut will be created but it will not have the right icon. Right click on the shortcut, select Properties.  Then, click Change Icon as shown below.

  7. Change the icon file to:

    %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll

    Hit Enter and select the Recycle Bin Icon and click OK.


  8. Finally, drag the new shortcut onto the taskbar and it will be pinned directly.  Once the shortcut is pinned, you can delete the original on the desktop.
 
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Comments
John Boelker
2 years ago
Steve,
I don't know what I did wrong, but this isn't working exactly right for me. I have the Recycle Bin pinned to the taskbar. But when I open it, the preview pane doesn't show up over the Recycle Bin icon, as in your picture, but over the Explorer icon. This isn't as useful and it doesn't look as good as the example that you have posted. I'm pretty sure I followed the directions correctly. (I actually tried it three times with the same result) The problem may be that this is 7077 which came out after you posted the article, but it doesn't seem likely to be the problem to me. Any help would be appreciated. Also what I'd really like to do is right click on the icon from the taskbar or better yet from the start menu, and empty the Recyle Bin from there, like you can do from the desk top icon. I think if somebody can figure out how to do that, it would be even better. Thanks alot.
Steve Sinchak
2 years ago
John, I tested it on 7068. I will see if I can get it to work on later builds. -Steve
John Boelker
2 years ago
Thanks Steve, I really apreciate it. If you find it works with 7077, let me know and I'll try again. -John
Steve Sinchak
2 years ago
John, at first it was not working for me on 7077 but after starting up the Explorer, closing and switching back a few times each it started working for me. Now, even after a reboot it works on the first try. I wonder if this may be a bug in 7077. -Steve
John Boelker
2 years ago
Steve, I tried opening and reclosing Explorer and rebooting several times but no luck. But you're right 7077 is kind of buggy. I pinned the Demonoid web site to the startup menu, and the next day windows turned the icon into a globe?! When I was doing some tweaks to the UI it turned back into the Demonoid icon. 15 minutes later it turned back into a globe again. Now I'm stuck with the globe icon until I have time to fix it. I'll wait until the next build and try it again. Even as it is, it's much better than a Desktop icon.
John Boelker
2 years ago
Steve, I finally got it to work last night. In order to do it I unpinned Explorer from the task bar. I then went to C:\windows\explorer sent it to the desktop and followed the same procedure to pin the recycle bin to the task bar. Now it works fine. Now when I try to pin a url to the task bar it pins itself to the recycle bin. Very strange. Also when you try to change the icon on the task bar or or start menu it changes the icon from the folder which it came from. I find that odd too. That's how I fixed the problem, Because I was trying to change the Explorer Icon on the task bar.-John
Hassaan
2 years ago
This is not very useful if it is just the icon/shortcut, without any additional functionality. Maybe there would be a way to customize jump lists.
JEAEB
2 years ago
i have tried it and it works on build 7100. i just cant seem to delete the recycle bin on the desktop
Oki
2 years ago
I used a different approach and it works better. At least I can see if the bin is empty or full in windows 7. I just followed these steps:

http://wigginscurse.blogspot.com/2007/05/recycle-bin-in-your-taskbar.html

And this other method for removin the bin from desktop

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4156-recycle-bin-icon-allow-prevent-display.html


Regards

Oki
kibo5
2 years ago
Thank you, Steve for this. Works great on Win7 7100RC. JEAEB. Start. Type in Desktop Icon Settings, & bring up Settings Window. Uncheck Recycle Bin. Done.
James
2 years ago
This is handy, however not functional as far as right clicking and emptying the bin. Is there a way have adding a fully functional recycle bin to the taskbar?
Mortus
2 years ago
Thanks for the tip, but it's almost useles since you cannot drag anything to this pinned recycle bin for a recycling :)
hersheys
2 years ago
Thanks. Works perfect on my build 7600.
nikhil
2 years ago
thnx alot kickass.
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