Want To Remove The Recycle Bin Icon From Your PC's Desktop? Here's How

The Recycle Bin has been a staple of Windows since its debut in Windows 95. Apart from the regular visible overhauls of the Recycle Bin icon, the feature has remained largely unchanged throughout the evolution of the Windows operating system. The Recycle Bin acts as a safety net, protecting files from getting deleted accidentally by temporarily saving them. You may recover the files or permanently delete them (and end up freeing precious disk space) as per your requirements from the Recycle Bin. For most PCs, the Recycle Bin icon is placed right on the desktop for easy access. However, you may want to delete it from your desktop if you seldom use the feature or just want to customize your Windows desktop for a minimalistic appearance.

That said, you cannot completely disable the feature from your Windows device. However, Windows offers a variety of methods to remove the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop, including some that work on all Windows versions, like Windows XP and 7. Here's a quick guide explaining the methods to remove the Recycle Bin icon in detail.

The method to remove the Recycle Bin icon using Windows Settings works on Windows Vista and all later Windows versions. While the core idea of the method remains the same, the actual process differs slightly across versions.

Follow these steps on Windows 10 and 11:

1. Go to the Settings menu by searching for it in the Windows Search or using the Windows + I keyboard shortcut.

2. Next, head to Themes under the Personalization submenu.

3. Scroll down to find the "Desktop icon settings" option and click on it.

4. Uncheck the Recycle Bin icon in the subsequent dialog box and click OK.

Follow these steps on Windows Vista, 7, and 8:

1. Go to the Control Panel and select "Personalize".

2. Now, find the "Change Desktop Icons" option in the "Personalize" menu and click on it.

3. A dialog box similar to the one in Windows 10 and 11 should appear. Uncheck the Recycle Bin icon and click OK. This should remove the Recycle Bin icon from your desktop.

While the Windows Settings method works on Windows Vista and later, you might be out of luck if you own a Windows XP-based PC. Fortunately, the registry editor method works on all Windows variants that have a registry editor, including Windows 95 and XP.

Follow these steps to remove the Recycle Bin icon using the registry editor:

Note: Deleting the wrong registry keys can render your Windows unusable. That's why you should carefully follow the below steps to avoid damaging the operating system. Additionally, you may create a registry backup file to restore your PC to its previous version if something goes wrong.

1. Open the Run command on your Windows and enter "regedit" to open the Registry Editor.

2. Once inside the Registry Editor, head to the following address:
   "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Explorer>Desktop>NameSpace"

3. Now, find the following key: "{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"

4. Right-click and select delete to remove the key.

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Head to the desktop and refresh it (shortcut – F5 key) to check if the Recycle Bin icon has been deleted. If not, you will need to restart your PC to see the effects of deleting the registry key.

Apart from these methods, you may also use the Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 and 11 Pro versions, as the feature isn't available in the Home versions by default.

Since the Recycle Bin feature remains on your PC even when you delete the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop, you can still access the feature using the Run command or Windows Explorer.

To do so, follow these methods:

• Head to Windows Explorer and search for the Recycle Bin in the search box on the top.
• You can also type "shell:RecycleBinFolder" in the Run command dialog box to open the Recycle Bin.

That said, if you want to restore the Recycle Bin icon back to the desktop, you can simply re-check the Recycle Bin icon in the Desktop Icon Settings/ Change Desktop Icons dialog box for the Windows Settings method. For the Registry Editor method, you will need to create a registry key in the same location as mentioned above with the same key. You may also restore the backup registry file containing the key for the Recycle Bin icon, if you created one while performing the registry editor method.