Windows 10 Tip: Put the Recycle Bin on the Taskbar

In Windows 8, Microsoft made it possible to pin the Recycle Bin to the Start screen, and that capability carries over to Windows 10 and of course works with the new Start menu too. But here's something new: Now you can pin the Recycle Bin to the taskbar as well.

This is important because with Windows 10 the desktop is, again, the shell, or user experience through which most people will use Windows. And with many applications—especially Universal mobile apps—running full screen or nearly so, this capability lets you access the Recycle Bin from a location that will always be visible and readily available.

You can't pin the Recycle Bin to the taskbar by right-clicking it on the desktop, as you might expect. Instead, you must first pin it to Start (as you could do before). And then, from the Start menu, right-click it and choose "Pin to taskbar."

Voila! (And now you can unpin it from Start if you wish.)

Unfortunately, you can't actually empty the Recycle Bin or perform some other useful actions from the taskbar. All you can really do is open it. Maybe this will change in the next preview (and maybe we'll be able to simply right-click the Recycle Bin on the desktop to pin to the taskbar as well.)