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:

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).

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

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:

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

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

6. That's it. Now click on "Apply" button and your problem will be solved.

Thanks to "piellepi" for sharing this solution.

This article was posted in Troubleshooting, Windows Vista.

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24 Comments

Christophe

It work perfectly for me on a french vista, thank you for publishing this
tony

wow thanks it works again i recently lost my bin and read a article how to fix it with a tool from Microsoft called recycle bin fix lol then i seen your articles and wow it was simple for me to do myself what there little tool did lol. thanks for showing me how to do these thing now i know myself. and no tool needed also thanks for fixing my full/UN full bin issue
Problems!

awesome it worked like a charm i ll have to make sure i don't delete my recycle bin again. Empty bin and delete are so close together lol.
Darren Chiang

Thanks! It really works and you saved me from a nasty headache.