How does the recycle bin work and how should I use it

There's a recycle bin with every computer. The recycle bin can also be called trash, garbage, or refuse. How does the recycle bin and work and how should you use it then? Let's talk.

The recycle bin is where all your deleted files go in order to make room on your hard drive for other files. Anytime you delete something from your computer be it a favorite website, any word documents or pictures that you have deleted. The recycle bin is easily found by the tiny little trash icon that represents it. Macintosh has had the trash can as part of the Mac operating system since the beginning and Microsoft introduced the recycle bin with Windows 95.

You can use the recycle bin by either deleting the files from your computer or you can also recover those files. Once in awhile your recycle bin will also need to be cleaned out and deleted completely. Here are the three ways that you can use the recycle bin to delete the files you no longer need.

1. Highlight the file that you wish to delete. Press the file and press the Delete (Del) key. Your file is now in the recycle bin.


2. Right-click on the file that you want deleted. Choose Delete from the menu. The file will be deleted and moved to the recycle bin.


3. You can simply drag the file to the recycle bin.

The recycle bin is like a safety net for all your deleted files since you can also recover the files if you made a mistake by deleting it.Think of the recycle bin as a holding place for your deleted files much like your trash bins at home. You may not go rummaging around in your home trash but you can go through the trash bins on your computer. Those files you just deleted will remain in your trash bin until it's emptied. If you have accidentally deleted a file the recycle bin is the first place you should look to retrieve the file.

To retrieve a file from the recycle bin all you need to do is double click on the recycle bin icon. When the list comes up you will see all the documents, files and shortcuts or pictures that you have recently deleted. When you find the file you want to retrieve you need to right click on that file and choose restore. The file will then return the original place that you had it stored at. You may also just click and drag the file to be retrieved and place it wherever you want and it will be out of your recycle bin.

Like previously stated your files will remain in the recycle bin until you empty the bin by right clicking on the recycle bin icon. Choose the empty recycle bin choice when the prompt comes up. Another way to clean the recycle bin is to use the disk cleanup utility this will clean your hard drive and your recycle bin. In order to use the disk cleanup you will need to click on start, then on all programs, click accessories followed by system tools and then you are at disk cleanup. When your recycle bin is emptied the addresses of all files that were in there can only be retrieved with a special disk recovery program.

Occasionally you will need to empty the recycle bin of your computer. This allows more space on your hard drive and faster response times when using your computer. Before emptying your recycle bin you may want to look through the files and make sure that you no longer need any of those files. This is how your recycle bin works and how you should use it.