how to empty recyclebin through command prompt?

Asked 11/2, 2012 at 8:50 Answered 19/3, 2021 at 22:6

Solved windows windows-7 command-line batch-file recycle-bin

Usually we delete the recycle bin contents by right-clicking it with the mouse and selecting "Empty Recycle Bin". But I have a requirement where I need to delete the recycle bin contents using the command prompt. Is this possible? If so, how can I achieve it?

Adriel answered 11/2, 2012 at 8:50 Comment(0)

110

You can effectively "empty" the Recycle Bin from the command line by permanently deleting the Recycle Bin directory on the drive that contains the system files. (In most cases, this will be the C: drive, but you shouldn't hardcode that value because it won't always be true. Instead, use the %systemdrive% environment variable.)

The reason that this tactic works is because each drive has a hidden, protected folder with the name $Recycle.bin, which is where the Recycle Bin actually stores the deleted files and folders. When this directory is deleted, Windows automatically creates a new directory.

So, to remove the directory, use the rd command (remove directory) with the /s parameter, which indicates that all of the files and directories within the specified directory should be removed as well:

rd /s %systemdrive%\$Recycle.bin

Do note that this action will permanently delete all files and folders currently in the Recycle Bin from all user accounts. Additionally, you will (obviously) have to run the command from an elevated command prompt in order to have sufficient privileges to perform this action.

Capetian answered 11/2, 2012 at 9:30 Comment(7)

A few more caveats: • the change in bin status may not reflect in Explorer (the desktop icon) until you actually open the Recycle Bin and/or refresh the desktop, • it only affects that particular volume; recycled files on other drives will not be affected, so you may not be actually emptying the recycle bin with this method, and • the directory name can vary by Windows version (and I believe filesystem as well). It may be $Recycle.bin, Recycled, Recycler, etc. and you may even have more than one if you multi-boot—programs like Norton Recovery Bin have their own directories. – Romilda 14/5, 2013 at 14:49

@Synetech, How do we figure out is it $Recycle.bin, Recycled, or Recycler? Is there a variable to do that, or is the only way via catching the exceptions? – Interloper 25/5, 2015 at 0:0

Note: If you're using this in a script, you will also want to pass in a /q switch so rd doesn't give you an extra prompt. rd /s /q %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$Recycle.bin – Myriapod 11/11, 2016 at 2:43

Does not work on my Windows 10. Nothing happens after using this command. – Halftruth 11/1, 2019 at 4:1

Reminder this only works in CMD. If you want it to run in powershell, try cmd /c "rd /s %systemdrive%\$Recycle.bin" – Rationality 13/3, 2019 at 10:8

In Win 10, Recycle Bin is an app; doesn't respond to right clicks in start menu – Galling 16/2, 2021 at 6:34

If you want to see the contents before deleting type cd / then cd $Recycle.bin then dir */s – Bearing 26/2, 2021 at 17:26

I prefer recycle.exe from Frank P. Westlake. It provides a nice before and after status. (I've been using Frank's various utilities for well over ten years..)

C:\> recycle.exe /E /F
Recycle Bin: ALL
    Recycle Bin C:  44 items, 42,613,970 bytes.
    Recycle Bin D:   0 items, 0 bytes.
            Total:  44 items, 42,613,970 bytes.

Emptying Recycle Bin: ALL
    Recycle Bin C:   0 items, 0 bytes.
    Recycle Bin D:   0 items, 0 bytes.
            Total:   0 items, 0 bytes.

It also has many more uses and options (output listed is from /?).

Recycle all files and folders in C:\TEMP:
  RECYCLE C:\TEMP\*

List all DOC files which were recycled from any directory on the C: drive:
  RECYCLE /L C:\*.DOC

Restore all DOC files which were recycled from any directory on the C: drive:
  RECYCLE /U C:\*.DOC

Restore C:\temp\junk.txt to C:\docs\resume.txt:
  RECYCLE /U "C:\temp\junk.txt" "C:\docs\resume.txt"

Rename in place C:\etc\config.cfg to C:\archive\config.2007.cfg:
  RECYCLE /R "C:\etc\config.cfg" "C:\archive\config.2007.cfg"

Inveteracy answered 28/2, 2014 at 1:2 Comment(6)

Doesn't this have the same problem Synetech mentioned? #9239453 – Interloper 25/4, 2015 at 17:8

@Interloper I don't show the Recycle Bin on my desktop, so I never noticed before whether the icon updates or not. After just testing it, the icon is updated correctly after emptying via recycle.exe. As far as the directories are concerned, I expect that it is using a Win32 API to empty the Recycle Bin. Having said that, I have used this util for many years on Windows including XP, 7, 8, 8.1 and Server 2003, 2012, 2012 R2. (I probably used it on Vista and Server 2008, but didn't run those OSes very long, so I can't say for certain..) – Inveteracy 27/4, 2015 at 18:4

Yea, it's not a particularly useful tool, especially since there are in-built ways to do it already. – Interloper 25/5, 2015 at 0:2

@Interloper built in ways!? Like navigating Windows Explorer with the keyboard and/or mouse? Using the icon on the desktop (assuming the recycle bin is even displayed on the desktop)? Neither of which solve the op's question. I really do think there is a command somewhere for emptying the bin, like deleting history RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1 but I haven't found it. So, please, if you have a built-in way, please share it! – Inveteracy 26/5, 2015 at 15:40

? Isn't the solution at https://mcmap.net/q/87613/-how-to-empty-recyclebin-through-command-prompt considered built-in? – Interloper 2/7, 2015 at 16:26

@Pacerier: First you suggest this solution has flaws like the RD /S [/Q] solution - which @wasatchwizard refuted by testing - then the exact same RD /S [/Q] solution suddenly is superior, because it's "built-in". How does that make sense? RD /S [/Q] has the problems @Romilda described. This solution does not. – Fedora 25/1, 2016 at 19:58

nircmd lets you do that by typing

nircmd.exe emptybin

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd-x64.zip
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

Eliza answered 1/6, 2012 at 16:41 Comment(2)

thanks i needed that when i had alot in my recycle and windows clicks to empty dose not work thanks. – Pliant 26/1, 2018 at 19:18

@Pliant Thank you for the comment :) – Eliza 26/1, 2018 at 23:44

You can use a powershell script (this works for users with folder redirection as well to not have their recycle bins take up server storage space)

$Shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application
$RecBin = $Shell.Namespace(0xA)
$RecBin.Items() | %{Remove-Item $_.Path -Recurse -Confirm:$false}

The above script is taken from here.

If you have windows 10 and powershell 5 there is the Clear-RecycleBin commandlet.

To use Clear-RecycleBin inside PowerShell without confirmation, you can use Clear-RecycleBin -Force. Official documentation can be found here

Mcneil answered 9/3, 2016 at 15:57 Comment(2)

Clear RecycleBin is useful in PowerShell in windows 10 – Fernando 17/7, 2016 at 1:59

Clear-RecycleBin successfully deleted some malformed folder names in recycle bin that I could not remove otherwise. – Lasalle 10/9, 2020 at 12:58

You can use this PowerShell command.

Clear-RecycleBin -Force

Note: If you want a confirmation prompt, remove the -Force flag

Patronage answered 1/9, 2020 at 9:5 Comment(3)

Works, the gives error:

Clear-RecycleBin : The system cannot find the path specified At line:1 char:1 + Clear-RecycleBin -Force + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (RecycleBin:String) [Clear-RecycleBin], Win32Exception     + FullyQualifiedErrorId : FailedToClearRecycleBin,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ClearRecycleBinCommand

– Galling 21/2, 2021 at 5:39

This should be the first thing people try. – Mollescent 28/4, 2023 at 17:27

This emptys the current user's recycle bin. Not the whole recycle bin. – Computer 3/5, 2023 at 7:46

I use this powershell oneliner:

gci C:\`$recycle.bin -force | remove-item -recurse -force

Works for different drives than C:, too

Interdiction answered 22/3, 2017 at 7:30 Comment(0)

To stealthily remove everything, try :

rd /s /q %systemdrive%\$Recycle.bin

Unborn answered 13/4, 2014 at 15:29 Comment(0)

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I thought I might contribute my subjectively more graceful solution.

I was looking for a script that would empty the Recycle Bin with an API call, rather than crudely deleting all files and folders from the filesystem. Having failed in my attempts to RecycleBinObject.InvokeVerb("Empty Recycle &Bin") (which apparently only works in XP or older), I stumbled upon discussions of using a function embedded in shell32.dll called SHEmptyRecycleBin() from a compiled language. I thought, hey, I can do that in PowerShell and wrap it in a batch script hybrid.

Save this with a .bat extension and run it to empty your Recycle Bin. Run it with a /y switch to skip the confirmation.

<# : batch portion (begins PowerShell multi-line comment block)
:: empty.bat -- https://mcmap.net/q/87613/-how-to-empty-recyclebin-through-command-prompt

@echo off & setlocal

if /i "%~1"=="/y" goto empty

choice /n /m "Are you sure you want to empty the Recycle Bin? [y/n] "
if not errorlevel 2 goto empty
goto :EOF

:empty
powershell -noprofile "iex (${%~f0} | out-string)" && (
    echo Recycle Bin successfully emptied.
)
goto :EOF

: end batch / begin PowerShell chimera #>
Add-Type shell32 @'
    [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
    public static extern int SHEmptyRecycleBin(IntPtr hwnd, string pszRootPath,
        int dwFlags);
'@ -Namespace System

$SHERB_NOCONFIRMATION = 0x1
$SHERB_NOPROGRESSUI = 0x2
$SHERB_NOSOUND = 0x4

$dwFlags = $SHERB_NOCONFIRMATION
$res = [shell32]::SHEmptyRecycleBin([IntPtr]::Zero, $null, $dwFlags)

if ($res) { "Error 0x{0:x8}: {1}" -f $res,`
    (New-Object ComponentModel.Win32Exception($res)).Message }
exit $res

Here's a more complex version which first invokes SHQueryRecycleBin() to determine whether the bin is already empty prior to invoking SHEmptyRecycleBin(). For this one, I got rid of the choice confirmation and /y switch.

<# : batch portion (begins PowerShell multi-line comment block)
:: empty.bat -- https://mcmap.net/q/87613/-how-to-empty-recyclebin-through-command-prompt

@echo off & setlocal
powershell -noprofile "iex (${%~f0} | out-string)"
goto :EOF

: end batch / begin PowerShell chimera #>
Add-Type @'

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace shell32 {
    public struct SHQUERYRBINFO {
        public Int32 cbSize; public UInt64 i64Size; public UInt64 i64NumItems;
    };

    public static class dll {
        [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
        public static extern int SHQueryRecycleBin(string pszRootPath,
            out SHQUERYRBINFO pSHQueryRBInfo);

        [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
        public static extern int SHEmptyRecycleBin(IntPtr hwnd, string pszRootPath,
            int dwFlags);
    }
}
'@

$rb = new-object shell32.SHQUERYRBINFO

# for Win 10 / PowerShell v5
try { $rb.cbSize = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SizeOf($rb) }
# for Win 7 / PowerShell v2
catch { $rb.cbSize = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SizeOf($rb.GetType()) }

[void][shell32.dll]::SHQueryRecycleBin($null, [ref]$rb)
"Current size of Recycle Bin: {0:N0} bytes" -f $rb.i64Size
"Recycle Bin contains {0:N0} item{1}." -f $rb.i64NumItems, ("s" * ($rb.i64NumItems -ne 1))

if (-not $rb.i64NumItems) { exit 0 }

$dwFlags = @{
    "SHERB_NOCONFIRMATION" = 0x1
    "SHERB_NOPROGRESSUI" = 0x2
    "SHERB_NOSOUND" = 0x4
}
$flags = $dwFlags.SHERB_NOCONFIRMATION
$res = [shell32.dll]::SHEmptyRecycleBin([IntPtr]::Zero, $null, $flags)

if ($res) { 
    write-host -f yellow ("Error 0x{0:x8}: {1}" -f $res,`
        (New-Object ComponentModel.Win32Exception($res)).Message)
} else {
    write-host "Recycle Bin successfully emptied." -f green
}
exit $res

Inconsequent answered 17/12, 2016 at 3:43 Comment(4)

Very nice improvement of batch/powershell chimera technique (+1). Is the iex-ing your idea? (btw it is possible to embed C# code in batch file with msbuild inline tasks without need of compiling exe) – Veronaveronese 5/1, 2017 at 13:26

@Veronaveronese Thanks! I think many others have used iex this way. I forget where I picked up that ${%~f0} is equivalent to gc "%~f0". It was this cat who turned me onto out-string. Can you link an example of embedding C# in a batch script with msbuild? My Google-fu is weak today. – Inconsequent 5/1, 2017 at 15:25

here - dostips.com/forum/… - though you cannot pass command line arguments directly - you'll need to define a variable with the arguments that later can be extracted from the c# part – Veronaveronese 5/1, 2017 at 16:50

and in the example above .net version is not parametrized. – Veronaveronese 5/1, 2017 at 16:51

while

rd /s /q %systemdrive%\$RECYCLE.BIN

will delete the $RECYCLE.BIN folder from the system drive, which is usually c:, one should consider deleting it from any other available partitions since there's an hidden $RECYCLE.BIN folder in any partition in local and external drives (but not in removable drives, like USB flash drive, which don't have a $RECYCLE.BIN folder). For example, I installed a program in d:, in order to delete the files it moved to the Recycle Bin I should run:

rd /s /q d:\$RECYCLE.BIN

More information available at Super User at Empty recycling bin from command line

Carmina answered 6/12, 2014 at 3:24 Comment(1)

Ahhhh I've been trying to figure out why the suggested commands above didn't work. Specifying f: for mine made it work. Thanks a lot! <3 – Parietal 16/6, 2015 at 7:31

i use these commands in a batch file to empty recycle bin:

del /q /s %systemdrive%\$Recycle.bin\*
for /d %%x in (%systemdrive%\$Recycle.bin\*) do @rd /s /q "%%x"

Flyblow answered 4/9, 2016 at 5:47 Comment(2)

Win 10 doesn't have a %systemdrive%\$Recycle.bin directory – Galling 16/2, 2021 at 6:36

@Galling of course it doesn't. everyone here is just making things up that sound cool – Fungicide 26/1, 2022 at 7:45

Yes, you can Make a Batch file with the following code:

cd \Desktop

echo $Shell = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application >>FILENAME.ps1
echo $RecBin = $Shell.Namespace(0xA) >>FILENAME.ps1
echo $RecBin.Items() ^| %%{Remove-Item $_.Path -Recurse -Confirm:$false} >>FILENAME.ps1


REM The actual lines being writen are right, exept for the last one, the actual thigs being writen are "$RecBin.Items() | %{Remove-Item $_.Path -Recurse -Confirm:$false}"   
But since | and % screw things up, i had to make some changes.

Powershell.exe -executionpolicy remotesigned -File  C:\Desktop\FILENAME.ps1

This basically creates a powershell script that empties the trash in the \Desktop directory, then runs it.

Randellrandene answered 29/6, 2018 at 8:26 Comment(0)

I use `EmptyRecycleBin.py` python script

You will need to `pip install winshell`

#!python3

# Empty Windows Recycle Bin

import winshell

try:
    winshell.recycle_bin().empty(confirm=False, show_progress=True, sound=False)
    print("Recycle Bin emptied")

except:
    print('Recycle Bin is already empty')

You can change the Boolean False and True statements to either turn on or off the following: Confirm yes\no dialog, progress bar, sound effect.

If you don't use python, this one-liner for powershell is great.

I actually have it in EmptyRecycleBin.ps1, and use it in Git Bash.

Clear-RecycleBin -Force

Towill answered 19/3, 2021 at 22:6 Comment(0)

Create cmd file with line:

for %%p in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist "%%p:\$Recycle.Bin" rundll32.exe advpack.dll,DelNodeRunDLL32 "%%p:\$Recycle.Bin"

Bolshevist answered 30/3, 2020 at 16:41 Comment(4)

Win 10 doesn't have $Recycle.Bin in drive root – Galling 16/2, 2021 at 6:32

Just checked Windows 10 Pro build 2004 and it does. Maybe you should enable option of showing hidden/system files and folders in your file manager. – Bolshevist 19/2, 2021 at 23:0

Aha! Found it: Command still works, but file wasn't visible in explorer; I'd already selected Show Hidden files, and wasn't visible in C: drive. It does become visible when I uncheck Hide protected operating system files (separate option). Cheers. – Galling 21/2, 2021 at 5:40

rundll32.exe advpack.dll,DelNodeRunDLL32 doesn't empty bin for me: Win 10.0.17134. Fixed: works in Elevated prompt. – Galling 21/2, 2021 at 5:41

All of the answers are way too complicated. OP requested a way to do this from CMD.

Here you go (from cmd file):

powershell.exe /c "$(New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application).NameSpace(0xA).Items() | %%{Remove-Item $_.Path -Recurse -Confirm:$false"

And yes, it will update in explorer.

Hoo answered 10/12, 2018 at 10:53 Comment(0)

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I use EmptyRecycleBin.py python script

You will need to pip install winshell

If you don't use python, this one-liner for powershell is great.

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I use `EmptyRecycleBin.py` python script

You will need to `pip install winshell`