Karen's Recycler

Windows' Recycle Bin can be a real life-saver. Most of us can tell a
horror story or two about the accidental deletion of an important file.
Hopefully, these stories have a happy ending thanks to the Recycle Bin's
ability to give us a second chance.

But the Recycle Bin can cause problems too. For example, it's easy to
forget to take out the trash. If you neglect this task long enough, files
you thought were long gone can eventually take up a large portion of your
disk space.

That's why Karen created a new Power Tool. Called Karen's Recycler,
this program makes it easy to monitor and manage your Recycle Bin. And it
can even automate the process of emptying the bin.

Run the new program and you'll immediately discover one of Windows' little
secrets. Although there's only one Recycle Bin icon on your computer's
desktop, there are actually as many recycle bins as disk drives. In other
words, each of a computer's disk drives has its own Recycle Bin.

Recycler displays the number of deleted files in each drive's bin.
You'll also see the amount of the drive's space currently occupied by
deleted files, and the amount of free space available on each disk.

Alongside each drive's information is a checkbox. Place a checkmark there,
and that drive's Recycle Bin is selected for emptying. Now, click the
program's "Empty Selected Bin(s)" button, and the tedious job of taking
out the trash done.

Afterwards, program's main window is automatically updated. The number of
deleted files on a selected drive will drop to zero, along with the disk
space those files consume. The amount of free space on the drive will
increase accordingly, as the deleted file's space is made available for
reuse.

Take a Shortcut

To make it even easier to empty your Recycle Bin, the new program allows
you to save its current settings in a desktop shortcut. Later, you can
double-click that shortcut's icon to take out the trash.

Recycler shortcuts can be stored in other places too. For example, save
the shortcut in your Windows Startup folder, and the Recycle Bin will be
emptied automatically each time Windows boots.

And if you don't want your garbage lying around overnight, ask
Karen's
Show Stopper to run the Recycler each time Windows shuts down. Just drag a
Recycler shortcut onto the Show Stopper's list of available tasks. Now add
that new task to a task group, and select that task group to run when
Windows stops.

Other program can control the Recycler too. For example,
Karen's Countdown
Timer II can be told to run the Recycler every night. Just specify a
shortcut to the Recycler, when asked which file or program to run. Now the
Recycler will take out your digital trash even as the night crew cleans
your office.