How to Empty Recycle Bin in Windows 10
The Recycle Bin provides a safety net when deleting files or folders. When you delete any of these items from a 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.
Each user account on the PC will have their own separate Recycle Bin, and will be referenced by their Security Identifier (SID) in each drive's $Recycle.Bin.
Items in the Recycle Bin still take up hard disk space and can be undeleted or restored back to their original location. When the Recycle Bin of a drive reaches its maximum storage size, Windows will automatically permanently delete (empty) older files in the Recycle Bin location to accommodate the most recently deleted files and folders.
When you manually empty the Recycle Bin, all files in the Recycle Bin will be permanently deleted to free up disk space.
This tutorial will show you different ways on how to empty Recycle Bin for your account in Windows 10.
Contents
- Option One: To Empty Recycle Bin for all drives from Recycle Bin desktop icon
- Option Two: To Empty Recycle Bin for all drives from File Explorer Navigation Pane
- Option Three: To Empty Recycle Bin for all drives from File Explorer Ribbon
- Option Four: To Empty Recycle Bin for specific drive in Disk Cleanup
- Option Five: To Empty Recycle Bin for specific or all drives in PowerShell
- Option Six: To Empty Recycle Bin for specific or all drives in Command Prompt
1 Right click or press and hold on the Recycle Bin desktop icon, and click/tap on Empty Recycle Bin. (see screenshot below)
This option is only available if you have set to show all folders in the navigation pane, or added the Recycle Bin to the navigation pane.
1 Right click or press and hold on the Recycle Bin in the navigation pane, and click/tap on Empty Recycle Bin. (see screenshot below)
1 Open the Recycle Bin.
2 Click/tap on the "Recycle Bin Tools" Manage tab, and click/tap on Empty Recycle Bin in the ribbon. (see screenshot below)
1 Open Disk Cleanup.
2 If you have more than one drive or partition on your PC, then select the drive you want to empty the Recycle Bin for, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
3 Check the Recycle Bin box, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
4 Click/tap on Delete Files to confirm. (see screenshot below)
For more usage details of the Clear-RecycleBin command, see: Clear-RecycleBin - Microsoft Developer Network
1 Open PowerShell.
2 Type the command below you want to use into PowerShell, and press Enter. (see screenshots below)
(Empty Recycle Bin for all drives)
Clear-RecycleBin -force -ErrorAction:Ignore
OR
(Empty Recycle Bin for specific drive)
Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter <drive letter> -force -ErrorAction:Ignore
Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to empty the Recycle Bin for.
For example:Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter C -force -ErrorAction:Ignore
3 When finished, you can close PowerShell if you like.
1 Open a command prompt.
2 Type the command below you want to use into the command prompt, and press Enter.
(Empty Recycle Bin for all drives)
PowerShell Clear-RecycleBin -force -ErrorAction:Ignore
OR
(Empty Recycle Bin for specific drive)
PowerShell Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter <drive letter> -force -ErrorAction:Ignore
Substitute <drive letter> in the command above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to empty the Recycle Bin for.
For example:PowerShell Clear-RecycleBin -DriveLetter C -force -ErrorAction:Ignore
3 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
The Recycle Bin desktop icon will not automatically refresh to the empty icon using this option. You can open and close the Recycle Bin to refresh the icon.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
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