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Q. How can I place the Recycle Bin on the Task Bar in Windows 7?

A. I'm one of those people who like a clean desktop, with no icons and a neat wallpaper. The only icon I had in previous versions of Windows was the Recycle Bin. With the procedure below, you can access the Recycle Bin using the Quick Launch toolbar.

  1. Right-click the taskbar and select New Toolbar from the Toolbars menu.
  2. Enter the string "%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" when prompted for the location. Don't type the quotes.
  3. You'll have a new Quick Launch bar. Right click on the Quick Launch toolbar and make sure Lock the Taskbar isn't selected. Also unselect the Show Text and Show Title options. From the View menu, select Large Icons.
  4. Expand the Quick Launch bar and delete all existing shortcuts. Drag the Recycle Bin to the new Quick Launch bar.



  5. Resize the Quick Launch bar so only the Recycle Bin icon is visible.
  6. Once you've completed the resize, enable Lock the Taskbar. Now you just have a Recycle Bin on your Task Bar that shows full or empty and has an action to empty and show the content.



Now you can remove the Recycle Bin from your desktop through the Change desktop icons link on the Personalize the Desktop Control Panel applet.

Related Reading:

Check out hundreds more useful Q&As like this in John Savill's FAQ for Windows. Also, watch instructional videos made by John at ITTV.net.
TAGS: Windows 7/8
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