[Solution] Recycle Bin Icon on Desktop Doesn’t Refresh Automatically in Windows Vista

In this topic I’m going to tell solution of another common problem in Windows Vista. Sometimes Recycle Bin icon on Desktop doesn’t refresh automatically, i.e. if its showing “Full Recycle Bin” icon, it’ll not change even if you empty the Recycle bin. It’ll change to Empty icon, once you Refresh the Desktop.

It happens when you try to change Recycle Bin icon using Desktop Properties and then you revert back the icon to default using “Restore Default” button. Windows changes the icon to default but the problem of icon not refreshing automatically starts occurring. Its a bug in Windows Vista, which I described recently in this article.

The solution of this problem is manually change both FULL and EMPTY Recycle Bin icons to default instead of using “Restore Default” button. So following are the steps to fix this problem:

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1. Right-click on Desktop and select “Personalize“. It’ll open Personalization window. Now click on “Change desktop icons” link in left-side pane. It’ll open “Desktop Icon Settings” window. You can also open it directly by using “control desk.cpl,,0” or “control desk.cpl,,@web” commands (without quotes).

DesktopIconSettings.jpg

2. Now select “Recycle Bin (full)” icon from the icons list and click on “Change Icon” button:

ChangeFullRecycleBinIcon.jpg

3. It’ll open “Change Icon” window. Although it’ll automatically select the correct default “Full Recycle Bin” icon, click on it to re-select it and then click on OK button:

SelectingFullRecycleBinIcon.jpg

4. Now do the same for “Recycle Bin (empty)” icon. Select it and click on “Change Icon” button:

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ChangeEmptyRecycleBinIcon.jpg

5. Select the default “Empty Recycle Bin” icon in “Change Icon” window and click on OK button:

SelectingEmptyRecycleBinIcon.jpg

6. That’s it. Now click on “Apply” button and your problem will be solved.

Thanks to our reader “piellepi” for sharing this solution…

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows Vista

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Thank you so much! I had been fixing the full bin OR the empty bin, but not both. I really appreciate that you care enough to help out the inept computer users like me.

  2. Thank you so much! I even went to the microsoft forums, and they suggested down loading this fix it program that did nothing at all but waste my time. This worked like a charm!

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