Windows 7: How to display the total size of Recycle Bin

Question

On Windows XP, the total size of Recycle Bin could be seen easily, but I can't see it on Windows 7. Why did Microsoft hide/remove this feature? Am I missing something?

REMARK 1: I don't need to see the maximum size that Recyle Bin can contain.

REMARK 2: Once you have several files selected in the Recycle Bin, you get a "See more details" link in the status bar, but clicking on that does not display the total file size. Microsoft has apparently changed this.

Answer 1

I ran into this as wel.

The accepted answer didn't satisfy my needs. I wanted to know the size of all the recycle bins as well as the total of these.

Using the WMI provider, it is easy to accomplish this: (save as a .vbs file)

dim oFS, oFolder, fileSizeTotal
Dim objWMIService, objItem, colItems, colPartitions, objPartition, _
    objLogicalDisk, colLogicalDisks
Dim strComputer, strMessage, strPartInfo,strDeviceID,ret
set oFS = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oShell = CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )


strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_DiskDrive")
For Each objItem in colItems
    strDeviceID = Replace(objItem.DeviceID, "\", "\\")
    Set colPartitions = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
        ("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID=""" & strDeviceID & _
        """} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition")
    For Each objPartition In colPartitions
        Set colLogicalDisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
            ("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID=""" & _
            objPartition.DeviceID & _
            """} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition")
        strPartInfo = strPartInfo & "Disk Partition: " & objPartition.DeviceID
        For Each objLogicalDisk In colLogicalDisks
            strPartInfo = strPartInfo & " " & objLogicalDisk.DeviceID
            ret = ret & objLogicalDisk.DeviceID & "\"
            if oFS.FolderExists(objLogicalDisk.DeviceID&"\$Recycle.Bin") then
                RECpath=oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( _
                objLogicalDisk.DeviceID & "\$Recycle.Bin")
                set oFolder = oFS.GetFolder(RECpath)
                ShowFolderDetails(oFolder)
            else
                ret = ret & " -empty- " & vbCr
            end if
        Next
        strPartInfo = strPartInfo & vbCr
    Next
    Wscript.Echo ret & "---------" & vbCr & "Total: " & calcSize(fileSizeTotal)
Next
WSCript.Quit


Sub ShowFolderDetails(oF)
    Dim size
    fileSizeTotal = fileSizeTotal + oF.Size
    size = calcSize(oF.Size)
    ret = ret & " = " & size  & vbCr
end Sub

function calcSize(sizeInB)
    Dim fSize, iKB, iMB, iGB, d
    iKB = 1024
    iMB = iKB * 1024
    iGB = iMB * 1024
    d = 2
    if sizeInB >= iGB then
        fSize = round(sizeInB/iGB,d) & " GB"
    elseif sizeInB >= iMB then
        fSize = round(sizeInB/iMB,d) & " MB"
    elseif sizeInB >= iKB then
        fSize = round(sizeInB/iKB,d) & " KB"
    else
        fSize = sizeInB & " B"
    end if
    calcSize = fSize
end function

or get it from here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/32933085/RecycleBinInfo.vbs

edit: I updated the script so it will not crash if the partition has no recycle bin. Also Bytes are now shown correctly

Answer 2

Sort the Recycle Bin by Item Type, then select all the files, do not select any directories. At the bottom you will be able to see the size of all the files if you show detailed information.

An alternative way is to select all the hidden system folders called $Recycle.bin in the System Root and viewing the details or properties of your selection, but above method should just do...

DIR /S %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$RECYCLE.BIN | FINDSTR /C:File(s)

See the last entry of above command to get the size of the recycle bin from a command prompt.

I wonder why it's important to know the size of the recycle bin though, when you want to know how much space you earn it's better to use Disk Cleanup or a similar tool, but for just getting rid of your deleted items it is not necessary. I think they left that feature out because it would have to look at different recycle bins, but indeed, with an extra effort it wouldn't be hard to implement...

Answer 3

It was suggested on the Microsoft forums (here and here) that running the Disk Cleanup program will provide the total size of all the files inside the Recycle Bin. There's no direct approach similar to what was implemented previously in Windows XP.

Answer 4

You could use something like Rainmeter, which can display an item on your desktop with the size of the items in the recycle bin, not ideal but its an option.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 5

WinDirStat will compute the size of your recycle bin, along with presenting a graphic representation of all the files on your HD and how its space is used. If you're trying to figure out where the space on your drive went it's much better than trying to poke around just using explorer.

Answer 6

It would have been good if Microsoft would save us people trouble to go to all these lengths and just implement the functionality the XP recycle bin had. Too bad.

The easiest solution I could find is the following:

1. In Folder Options, turn on the display of hidden files and folders as well as protected operating system files.
2. Browse to your C: drive, open the $Recycle.Bin folder, and then right-click and choose properties of the Recycle Bin icon you see.

This will show the total size.