How to Empty Windows Recycle Bin for All Users

Want to find out how to empty your windows recycle bin?

The first folder, “Recycle Bin,” contains all the user’s temporarily deleted folders. This folder is linked to all drives; thus, you can see deleted files from all industries, even if it just provides data for daily movement.

You utilize the linked folder as your regular Recycle Bin. Right-clicking and selecting “Empty Recycle Bin” only permanently deletes data from the current user account. Removing the $RECYCLE.BIN folder and SID folders from all drives empties the Recycle Bin for all users.

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Choose your favorite Windows method to delete this folder.

Command Prompt

The Command Prompt rmdir or rd command removes the Recycle bin folder easily.

1. Press Win + R to open Run.
2. To open the Elevated Command Prompt, type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
3. By typing rd /s drive letter>$Recycle.bin, you can empty the recycle bin for that drive. Then press Enter after typing y to confirm.
4. Use the /q flag to prevent command confirmation. Example: rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin

Create Batch Script

Create a batch script to avoid typing this command when clearing the recycle bin.

1. Open Run
2. Press Enter to launch notepad.
3. Type rd /s /q <drive letter>\$Recycle.bin. This command can be repeated to empty the recycle bin for all drive letters.
4. Ctrl+Shift+S opens the “Save as” window.
5. Go anywhere—for example, EmptyRecycleBin.bat.
6. Save.
7. To run the command, double-click the.bat file in that location.

Power Shell

1. Open Run.
2. To open the Elevated Windows PowerShell, type PowerShell and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Use the Run command pwsh instead of PowerShell core.
3. Type the following command, but change C to the letter of the drive you want:
4. Get-ChildItem “C:\`$Recycle.bin\” -Force | Remove-Item -Recure -force
5. PowerShell would treat $Recycle as a variable name if you didn’t use the back quote (‘) sign before the dollar sign ($).

Manually Deleting

To clean the root Recycle Bin for everyone, manually erase its contents. Due to many confirmations, this procedure may take longer.

Unhide protected files and folders first. Here’s how:

1. Open Run
2. Enter control folders to open File Explorer Options.
3. Select View.
4. Check Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

To Continue:

1. Open the File Explorer (Win+E) and go into the drive whose recycle bin you want to empty.
2. To get rid of recycle bin, select it and press Ctrl + Shift + Del.
3. Check all of the following boxes.

That’s it! Pretty easy. Now enjoy your faster and quicker Windows.

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