Everybody who has used Windows operating system, knows what Recycle Bin is. Recycle Bin in Windows is a special folder where your deleted files and folders are kept until you empty the Recycle Bin too. If you change your mind after deleting a file, then the Recycle Bin allows you to recover those files easily. But when you have multiple windows open, you have to minimize all those windows to access the Recycle Bin from the desktop. The free MiniBin utility can help you easily access Recycle Bin from the system tray.
MiniBin is a tiny tool for the notification area in Windows (the area next to the clock in the taskbar). It places a small icon in the notification area and allows you to access recycle bin easily from there. You can download MiniBin from the e-sushi website. The download is available as a setup installer and is a very small size file.
If the Recycle Bin has something in it, then you would see a green filled MiniBin icon. If the Recycle Bin is empty, then you would see an empty MiniBin icon. If you right-click on this icon, then you would see a very simple context-menu giving you options for opening the Recycle Bin and emptying it.
You can configure its basic settings by right-clicking on the MiniBin system tray icon. You can choose the default actions when you double-click on the system tray icon. You can also decide whether to make sound and show progress window when emptying the recycle bin.
MiniBin is very small in size (around 90 kilobytes). During the installation, you can choose to install it in a custom folder and thus turning it into a portable application. After this you can copy the Minibin folder (that contains minibin.exe) to your USB key and run it on any PC you want. This application consumes very little of the system resources. You can also change the configuration in the minibin.ini in order to change the menu text strings.
MiniBin comes with only a single set of recycle bin icons. But if you want, then you can download dozens of such icons from the MiniBin website (labeled as MiniBin themes). MiniBin allows you to change these icons from the system tray context-menu. Just right-click on the MiniBin icon in the system tray, select Change Icons and then choose the icon that you want to change and finally select the icon file. Later, if you want to revert back to original MiniBin icons, then you can simply choose Reset Icons from the same context-menu.
Conclusion: MiniBin is a simple tool that can help you access the Windows recycle bin much easier. It shows the recycle bin status in the system tray of Windows and allows you to quickly empty it just by double-clicking on the MiniBin icon.
You can download MiniBin from http://www.e-sushi.net/software/.