When you try to empty the Recycle Bin using the Empty Recycle Bin context menu or from the Tasks pane, you’ll see the confirmation dialog as shown below:

Note: You can only disable the confirmation dialog shown when deleting a file or folder, there is no option available in Windows to disable the empty Recycle Bin confirmation prompt.

Here is a registry tweak to disable the empty recycle bin confirmation dialog in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Using NirCmd to empty the Recycle Bin

Download Nircmd.zip from Nirsoft.net, unzip and extract the files to a folder.

Move the file nircmd.exe to your Windows directory. To create a desktop shortcut to empty the Recycle Bin, use the following command:

nircmd emptybin

Right-click on the shortcut, choose Properties. Click Change Icon… and pick an appropriate icon from shell32.dll or another file..

Replacing the "Empty Recycle Bin" context menu

To make the Empty Recycle Bin command in the Recycle Bin run the above command, use these steps:

(You may use the file emptyrecyclebin.reg below to automate the following task.)

Caution: The Empty Recycle Bin option will not work from the Tasks pane, after applying this tweak. Also, the Empty Recycle Bin command in the context menu will be always enabled even though there are no files in the Recycle Bin.

1. Launch Regedit.exe and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

2. Create a new subkey named Shell

3. Select the Shell key, and create a subkey named emptybin

4. Similarly, create a subkey named command, under the emptybin key.

5. Select the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} \ shell \ emptybin \ command

6. Double-click (default) and set its data to:

nircmd.exe emptybin

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} \ shellex \ ContextMenuHandlers

9. Exit the Registry Editor.

Note: Step 8 is required to hide the the default Empty Recycle Bin command in the context menu, so that you don not end up with duplicate entries.

Registry Fix

Download emptyrecyclebin.zip and save to Desktop. Unzip the archive and extract the files to a folder. Double-click emptyrecyclebin.reg to run it.