How do I automatically empty the recycle bin?

November 4, 2006 10:23 AM

Can I have the Windows recycle bin automatically delete things after they've been in there a certain amount a time?
posted by Maia to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

It wasn't designed to work like that. If you're concerned about the amount of space taken up by deleted items, then adjust the amount of space that the Recycle Bin can use and the system will automatically delete files so as to stay under that limit. If you want it to be emptied more frequently then just set this to a lower value; you aren't meant to have to empty it manually at all. Or if you don't like the recycle bin then disable it entirely so that things actually get deleted.

If you really want this strange behavior then you could use a utility that empties the bin and schedule it to run every N minutes using Task Scheduler. But really, what's the point in doing that? You're essentially just disabling the Recycle Bin at that point.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:57 AM on November 4, 2006

I nearly wrote that reply Rhomboid (command line utility + task scheduler), but I think the OP is looking for "everything older than n days gets deleted", rather than "run deletion every n days" which is a reasonable approach to deleted files, IMO.

I did some googling, but I didn't find a solution. Closest I came was this, which seems overpriced.
posted by Leon at 11:20 AM on November 4, 2006

Could you write a small program that looks at the "moved to Recycle Bin" date, saves the names of things older than X, and then deletes those files? You might even be able to do it with a batch file (not sure). As has already been pointed out, you could schedule the program to run once every 24 hours.
posted by homer2k1 at 11:56 AM on November 4, 2006

I've used a program called Recycle Bin Zapper that did something like what you want. You can set two different expiration dates for files in your Recycle Bin...one for a list of file types, using their extensions as a filter, and one for everything else.

This is about the only place I've seen that still has it available for download. You'll need to use the download-by.net download as the author's site seems to be down.
posted by JaredSeth at 7:05 PM on November 4, 2006

Oh by the way RBZ does ask you to register at startup but will work whether or not you do so. Just click OK.

If the author is still accepting registrations, it supposed to be $15 (presumably to turn off the nag screen). If you don't reboot often, the prompt may not annoy you enough to bother.
posted by JaredSeth at 7:20 PM on November 4, 2006