Items in the Recycle Bin are kept until you empty it—or, in some cases, until its maximum storage size has been exhausted and Windows automatically removed older items to make room for new ones. If you have some security or privacy concerns and wouldn’t want items you delete laying around in the Recycle Bin, you can enable this feature to skip the Recycle Bin altogether, and the steps below show you how to do that. Another way to skip the Recycle Bin is to select an item or items you want to delete, then press the CTRL + SHIFT keys on your keyboard. Doing this will skip the Recycle Bin and delete it permanently. Something to remember is that skipping the Recycle Bin is not a completely secure way of deleting files or folders. A drive might not appear to have files on it, but it is still possible that special recovery software could retrieve the files. To get started with bypassing the Recycle Bin on Windows 11, follow the steps below.
How to bypass the Recycle Bin on Windows 11
If you want to delete items but don’t have them sit in the Recycle Bin until emptied or removed later, then you can enable the feature below. To do that, right-click on the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, then select Properties from the context menu as shown below. You can also get to the Properties settings by opening the Recycle Bin and selecting the ellipse (three dots on the toolbar menu) and selecting Properties. On Recycle Bin Properties window, you’ll see each volume listed. If you have only one volume, then you’ll only see that. If you have multiple volumes, you’ll see all listed. Select the volume for which you want to skip the Recycle Bin when you delete files, then check the box for “Don’t move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted“. Note that Windows uses different Recycle Bin settings for different drives. You will have to do this for each volume or disk that you want to skip the Recycle Bin. Click OK to save your changes and exit. After the setting above, any volume or drive you have this setting on will automatically skip the Recycle Bin when you delete items. You may not be able to restore when the settings above are enabled. That’s should do it! Conclusion: This post showed you how to permanently delete items without using the Recycle Bin on Windows 11. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.
