Win11 Fix Recycling Bin Pin to Quick Access

If you’re tired of repeatedly clicking, “Pin to Quick Access” when trying to empty the trash bin, you’re not alone. This non-intuitive design choice has tripped up many of users who are quickly trying to just clear the recycling bin and move on.

Enough talking, lets fix it!

Steps to Fix

You can create your own “remove-recyclebin-pin.reg“, paste in the code below and double-click the file to execute. BOOM! Fixed, done. Please note, the following will only apply the key for the current user.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Folder\shell\pintohome]
"AppliesTo"="System.ParsingName:<>\"::{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\""

After running, your Registry Editor will have an entry like so

Behind the Code

Simply, this is telling “pintohome” to apply the setting to all right-clickable shell items except for Recycle Bin.

Undoing The Fix

If for whatever reason you want to undo this, simply remove the created entry via Registry Editor (regedit.msc). Or, use the code below and create a file, “add-recyclebin-pin.reg“. The following code will delete the key, “pintohome” for the current user.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Folder\shell\pintohome]