For Seniors: Empty Your Laptop's Recycle Bin
When you delete a file on your laptop, it's placed in the Windows 7 Recycle Bin. Deleted files remain in the Recycle Bin until you empty it. Thus, until you empty your laptop's Recycle Bin or it reaches its size limit (and Windows automatically dumps a few older files), you can retrieve the files you deleted and restore them to use.
When you throw away junk mail, it’s still in the house for a time — it’s just in the trash bin instead of on your desk. That’s the idea behind the Windows Recycle Bin.
Retrieve items from the Recycle Bin by right-clicking its desktop icon and choosing Open.
You can retrieve items from the Recycle Bin up to the moment you permanently delete them by empting the Bin. When you click Open, a list of items in the Recycle Bin appears.
Select the item you want to retrieve and then click the Restore This Item link near the top of the Recycle Bin window.
The item is restored to its location prior to being deleted.
Empty the Recycle Bin by right-clicking its desktop icon and choosing Empty Recycle Bin.
A confirmation dialog box appears.
Click Yes.
A progress dialog box appears, indicating that the contents of the Recycle Bin are being deleted.
After you empty the Recycle Bin, all files in it are unavailable to you.
You can modify the Recycle Bin properties by right-clicking its desktop icon and choosing Properties. In the dialog box that appears, you can change the maximum size for the Recycle Bin, and whether to immediately delete files you move to the Recycle Bin. You can also deselect the option of having a confirmation dialog box appear when you delete Recycle Bin contents.
