Remove Recycle Bin from Desktop

Oscar Sodani is a founder of Help2Go and owner of Help2Go Networks, an IT consulting firm in the Washington D.C. area. Oscar holds the CISSP certification as well as industry certifications from Microsoft, Cisco and Novell.

Ever wish you could get remove the Recycle Bin icon from your desktop? Would you like to skip the Recycle Bin functionality altogether and just delete your files directly? We'll show you how...
Note: This article is for advanced users only. Furthermore, this tip only works on Windows XP Professional Edition.

Remove the Recycle Bin icon from your desktop

Click on the Start button and choose Run... In the Run dialog box, enter gpedit.msc

The Group Policy utility will open. Expand the option for User Configuration, then Administrative Templates, then Desktop. Configure the setting for Remove recycle bin from desktop.

Skip the recycle bin when deleting files

This will permanently delete files when you select delete. They will not be moved to the Recycle Bin! Only do this option on systems you need to keep very secure - you're taking away your own safety net!

If you haven't already, open the Group Policy utility. Click on the Start button and choose Run... In the Run dialog box, enter gpedit.msc

The Group Policy utility will open. Expand the option for User Configuration, then Administrative Templates, then Windows Components, then Windows Explorer. Configure the setting for Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin.

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