Auto-emptying the Recycle Bin The Recycle Bin has two advantages over the physical trash can behind your house: First, it never smells. Second, when it’s full, it can empty itself automatically. To configure this self-emptying feature, you specify a certain fullness limit. When the Recycle Bin contents reach that level, Windows begins deleting files (permanently) as new files arrive in the Recycle Bin. Files that arrived in the Recycle Bin first are deleted first. Unless you tell it otherwise, Windows reserves 10 percent of your drive to hold Recycle Bin contents. To change that percentage, right-click the Recycle Bin. From the shortcut menu, choose Properties. Now you can edit the “Maximum size” number, in megabytes (Figure 3-15). Keeping the percentage low means you’re less likely to run out of the disk space you need to install software and create documents. On the other hand, raising the percentage means you have more opportunity to restore files you decide to retrieve. Note: Every disk has its own Recycle Bin, which holds files and folders you’ve deleted from that disk. As you can see in the Recycle Bin Properties dialog box, you can give each drive its own trash limit and change the deletion options shown in Figure 3-15 for each drive independently. Just click the drive’s name before changing the settings.
Shortcut Icons All Versions
A shortcut is a link to a file, folder, disk, or program (see Figure 3-16). You might think of it as a duplicate of the thing’s icon—but not a duplicate of the thing itself. (A shortcut occupies almost no disk space.) When you double-click the shortcut icon, the original folder, disk, program, or document opens. You can also set up a keystroke for a shortcut icon so you can open any program or document just by pressing a certain key combination. Shortcuts provide quick access to the items you use most often. And because you can make as many shortcuts of a file as you want, and put them anywhere on your PC, you can, in effect, keep an important program or document in more than one folder. Just create a shortcut to leave on the desktop in plain sight, or drag its icon onto the Start button or the Links toolbar. In fact, everything listed in the StartÆAll Programs menu is a shortcut. So is every link in the top part of your Navigation pane. Tip: Don’t confuse the term shortcut, which refers to one of these duplicate-icon pointers, with shortcut menu, the context-sensitive menu that appears when you right-click almost anything in Windows. The shortcut menu has nothing to do with the shortcut icons feature; maybe that’s why it’s sometimes called the context menu.
Among other things, shortcuts are great for getting to Web sites and folders elsewhere on your network, because you’re spared having to type out their addresses or burrowing through network windows.