Dear Computer Lady,
Thank you for the most informative and detailed information you relay to your weekly subscribers. Every week I learn something new.
I seem to have a problem with my “recycle bin”. Not sure what I have done to my machine, but nothing goes to the “bin” anymore. It just disappears into cyberspace. Now, I don’t have the option of restoring an item that I may have deleted in error. Hope you can help me with this dilemma.
Thank you. JW
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Dear JW,
Either you have installed some software that empties your recycle bin on a regular basis, or your recycle bin settings have been changed. Here is how to change them back.
On your Windows XP or Vista desktop, right click on your “Recycle Bin” and then click on “Properties”.
In the “Recycle Bin Properties” window that appears, you will see a few simple options. Look for the option that says, “Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted”.
In Windows XP, If there is a check mark in that box, click on it to remove the check mark.
In Vista, just click on the radio button in front of the “Do not move files” option and it will be selected.
While you are in the “Recycle Bin Properties” window, you can also change a couple of other settings. If you don’t like being asked “Are you sure you want to send this file to the recycle bin” each time you try to delete a file, you can remove the check mark that is in front of “Display delete confirmation dialog”
In Windows XP, you can also move the slider to make your recycle bin larger or smaller. In Windows Vista, you simply type in the size (in megabytes) that you want your recycle bin to be.
Once you have finished making your changes, click the “OK” button at the bottom of the window to save your changes.
Elizabeth