How to Set Recycle Bin to Permanently Delete Files Immediately in Windows 10
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.
If you have multiple hard drives, partitions, or an external hard drive connected to your PC, each location will have its own $Recycle.Bin and Recycle Bin settings. Removable drives, such as USB flash drives and memory cards, will not have a Recycle Bin. Files deleted from removable drives are permanently deleted.
When a user deletes a file, it's usually moved to their Recycle Bin so that they can restore the file later if necessary. To permanently remove files from your PC and reclaim any hard disk space the files were using, you need to delete the files from the Recycle Bin. You can delete individual files from the Recycle Bin or empty the entire Recycle Bin at once.
You can choose to bypass the Recycle Bin when you delete something to have it permanently deleted immediately from your PC.
When you select to Don't move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted, it will remove the Disk Cleanup button from that drive's properties page. You will still be able to directly open and use Disk Cleanup though.
You can permanently delete a file from your computer without sending it to the Recycle Bin by clicking the file and then pressing Shift + Delete.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off to have the Recycle Bin permanently remove files immediately when deleted in your account in Windows 10.
EXAMPLE: Recycle Bin permanently delete confirmation dialog
Here's How:
1 Right click or press and hold on the Recycle Bin, and click/tap on Properties. (see screenshot below)
2 Select the Recycle Bin location for the drive (ex: C ) you want at the top. (see screenshot below)
3 Do step 4 (on) or step 5 (off) below for what you would like to do.
A) Select (dot) Don't move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted, click/tap on Apply, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)
This is the default setting.
A) Select (dot) Custom size, set the maximum size in MB (1024 MB = 1 GB) for storage you want, click/tap on Apply, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)
6 Repeat step 2 above if you have a Recycle Bin location for another drive you want to turn on or off to permanently delete files from automatically.
7 When finished, click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below step 2)
That's it,
Shawn Brink
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