How to open the Recycle Bin from the Windows command line?

How do I open the Recycle Bin from the command line?

I'd be very glad if there is a built-in Windows command.

Command line

On the command line, type

start shell:RecycleBinFolder

It is not case sensitive, so you can just type start shell:recyclebinfolder.

Run dialog

An alternative is to use the Run dialog (menu Start/Run or Win + R) - there is less to type. Type

shell:RecycleBinFolder

and press OK (or hit Enter).

It is portable!

This method works on all versions of Windows, at least back to Windows 2000.

(Depending on the OS and filesystem, the directory may be $Recycle.bin, Recycled, or Recycler.)

• To open the Recycle Bin window (showing deleted objects on all drives):

  C:\> start ::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
  or
  C:\> start shell:RecycleBinFolder
  or
  C:\> start C:\$Recycle.bin
  
  

• To list deleted objects on a specific drive:

  C:\> dir /s/a <driveletter>:\$Recycle.Bin

  (NB, the original filenames will not be shown in this mode.)

You can open the Recycle Bin window by using its GUID:

explorer ::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

This should work. Tested on Windows 7 successfully.

Open a command prompt and enter

CD \$Recycle.Bin

None of the previous 'run' commands for Recycle Bin worked on my Windows 10 machine. The start shell:RecycleBinFolder from inside the command window worked. I could not however find a way to have the system display the usual desktop icon. None of the solutions worked. I was however able to re-create the icon by making an Internet Explorer shortcut:

Target = "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" shell:RecycleBinFolder

And then changing the icon to the expected icon by browsing the shell icon DLL file. I now have it back...