Command line method to clear the recycle bin: PowerShell and command prompt

This article will describe how to use the command line to clear the Windows Recycle Bin, including PowerShell and Command Prompt. The Recycle Bin is a specific directory in the operating system that is used to temporarily store deleted files. You can recover unexpectedly deleted files from it. However, if too many files are stored in the Recycle Bin and are not emptied in time, it may cause excessive disk space and affect computer speed.

In addition to right-clicking the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop and selecting "Empty Recycle Bin", you can also use the command line to clear the Recycle Bin.

Two command line methods to clear the recycling bin

The following describes how to use PowerShell and command prompts to clear the Recycle Bin.

Method 1: Use PowerShell to clear the recycling bin

PowerShell is a command-line shell and script environment released by Microsoft that can be used to perform various tasks. To use this tool to clear the Recycle Bin, follow these steps:

1. In the Windows Search box, type powershell, and then right-click Windows PowerShell and select Run as Administrator.

2. Type Clear-RecycleBin -Force and press Enter.

Method 2: Use the command prompt to clear the recycling bin

The command prompt is a command line interpreter application in the Windows operating system. You can perform various tasks by entering commands, such as batching files, changing system settings, diagnosing Windows problems, and more. Here is how to use the command prompt to clear the Recycle Bin:

1. In the Windows search box, type cmd, and then right-click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.

2. If you receive a User Account Control Alert, click the Yes option to continue.

3. Type rd /q /sd:\\$Recycle.Bin and press Enter.

The above are two ways to use the command line to clear the recycle bin. If you need other ways to clear the recycling bin, you can refer to other related tutorials.

How to recover data after clearing the recycling bin?

Clearing the Recycle Bin via the command line is very easy. However, if you find that you need to recover important files after you clear the Recycle Bin, you can use the Data Recovery Tool. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is one of the most recommended data recovery software on the market.

This powerful file recovery tool is good at recovering various types of files from disks using FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT file systems. Specifically, it can help recover deleted photos, documents, videos, audio files, emails, and more on Windows 11/10/8/7.

Additionally, MiniTool Power Data Recovery supports individual scanning of the Recycle Bin to find deleted files, greatly reducing file scanning time. You can download its free version to recover 1 GB of data for free.

Summarize

This article mainly introduces the detailed information of using the command line to clear the recycle bin. Hopefully you can master the method of deleting recycle bin files using the command line.

In addition, this article also provides the reliable data recovery software MiniTool Power Data Recovery to help you recover deleted files after you clear the Recycle Bin. As long as you use it, we believe you will never be bothered by data loss again.

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