Restore Recycle Bin Using Group Policy

If the system administrator used a Group Policy setting to hide the Recycle Bin or "All Icons" on the Desktop, you may have to contact the system administrator to restore the Recycle Bin icon. The system administrator can either use the Group Policy Object Editor (GPEDIT.msc) or manually remove the registry information (that was created through the Group Policy Object Editor) for the Recycle Bin to restore the Recycle Bin icon to the Desktop.

Note: The following procedures works only on Windows XP Professional. If your system is not Windows XP Professional, you can try the procedure in the "Workaround" section.

Recycle Bin Missing in Windows XP

Edit the registry to restore the Recycle Bin

Important: This task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs.

Click here to know how to backup and restore registry.