Hide the Recycle Bin in Windows 11

Hide the Recycle Bin in Windows 11
Photo by Gary Chan / Unsplash

Perhaps you've just upgraded to Windows 11, you've chosen a nice new wallpaper, and you have a clear screen, apart from the pesky recycle bin in the corner. Well, hiding that trash can is very simple!

💡
Although these instructions were written for Windows 11, they will also help to hide the Recycle Bin in Windows 10 & 8.1 too.

Desktop cleanliness (the cyber kind) tends to go one of two ways: either you keep the desktop spick and span, with a well thought out wallpaper, or your desktop is a dumping group full of screenshots and 'New Folder', 'New Folder (2)' and 'New Folder (2) New'.

For the latter group: Don't fret! Help is available. But not here. This is for the first group of people.

Make a shortcut to the recycle bin first

I'd recommend creating a shortcut to the recycle bin so you can get back to it quickly when you need to. The quick access group in Windows Explorer is a good place for this.

Just click and drag into the Explorer window and you're done.

Hide the Desktop Recycle Bin

Now go into Settings -> Personalisation -> Themes -> Desktop Icon Settings (a quicker way is to hit the Windows key and search 'Themes', then choose Desktop Icon settings).

Now uncheck the 'Recycle Bin' box and hit Apply.

...and you're done!



Great! Next, complete checkout for full access to techbits.io
Welcome back! You've successfully signed in
You've successfully subscribed to techbits.io
Success! Your account is fully activated, you now have access to all content
Success! Your billing info has been updated
Your billing was not updated