Empty recycle bin

To empty the recycle bin only one file hast to be deleted.

"c:\$Recycle.Bin"

This can be done with the following oneliner:

"echo y | rd /s c:\$Recycle.Bin"

For those who are curious what the "echo y |" part in front of the main command "rd /s c:\$Recycle.Bin" means, after typing the main command you would get asked to confirm the deletion of the file, but we already know that we want to delete the file.

For this reason we tell the command prompt to send the key "y" for confirmation directly after processiog of the main command.

In my case its an german OS and i have to set a "j" after echo instead of a "y".

Here is a batch file wich will empty the recycle bin. It detects your OS language and provides "y" or "j" for confirmation automatically.

If you wonder why the recycle bin symbol does not look empty, Windows needs some seconds to realise whats happend. Sounds dumb. Is dumb.

Download: empty_recycle_bin.zip