If you are one of the lazy ones (hey! I said, “if”), you are probably tired of having to empty the waste bin next to your desk now and then. So, you can at least make it easier to empty your PC recycle bin. This tip shows you how to use your desktop context menu to empty the recycle bin, not only the context menu of the Recycle Bin icon.

Either you go the manual way (attention: advanced people only!), or you go the easy way, if you trust me.

Easy way

Download and import the following file into your Windows registry, by double clicking the downloaded *.reg file.

Free Download: Add Empty Recycle Bin entry in Desktop context menu 1.0.1 (420 downloads)
Experiencing problems? Let me know.

Manual way

1. Click “Start”, “Run”.
2. Enter “regedit”, and click “OK”.
3. Browse to the hive “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryBackgroundshellexContextMenuHandlers”.
4. Right-click it, and create a new sub-hive. Name it “Recycle Bin”.
5. Open that sub-hive, and edit the Default entry on the right-hand side of the window.
6. Enter the value “{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}”, and click “OK”.
7. Close the Registry Editor. Your changes should have been applied immediately.

Source: Gupta, V. (2009, March 1). Add Run, Search and Empty Recycle Bin Options in Desktop Context Menu in Windows XP, Vista and 7. Tweaking with Vishal. Retrieved 3 March, 2009, from http://www.askvg.com/add-run-search-and-empty-recycle-bin-options-in-desktop-context-menu-in-windows-xp-vista-and-7/