Desktop

An icon for the Recycle bin lives on the desktop. It’s easy to find.

Context Menu

The context menu for the icon has these items:

• Open
• Explore
• Empty Recycle Bin
• -
• Create Shortcut
• -
• Properties

Empty Recycle Bin is only enabled when the Recycle Bin has something in it.

Clicking Properties brings up a property sheet.

Recycle Bin Properties

The settings for Recycle Bin are few in number and use simple controls. But each one is important. This is basically how all option windows should be, imho.

Radio Buttons

A pair of radio buttons say:

• Configure drives independently
• Use one setting for all drives

There are several settings in this tab. Saying “one setting” makes me wonder which of the settings will be affected?

You could fiddle with the words but there’s a bigger picture. Any logical group of two radio buttons is effectively an on/off switch. A checkbox which says “Use these settings for all drives” is a clearer way to present this, to me.

Bypass the Recycle Bin

A checkbox says:

Do not move files to the Recycle Bin.
Remove files immediately when deleted

The line break looks weird and is inconsistent with labels elsewhere in Windows XP. Labels usually go as wide as possible, then wrap naturally. A checkbox label which has to wrap is too long.

Its purpose is to set whether the Recycle Bin is used or not. So how about “Deleting a file sends it to the Recycle Bin”?

Trackbar (aka Slider)

A slider follows, with a percentage readout given beneath it in a label. Beneath that is a label for the slider. The current layout makes the bottom line of the checkbox seem like a clumsily placed label for the slider.

I expect the label for a slider to appear above it or to the left. To maximise the width of the slider, placing the label above seems best here.

Display Warning

Finally, there is a checkbox labelled Display delete confirmation dialog. Does anyone know what a “confirmation dialog” is? I would label this Ask before deleting a file.

I agree with it being ticked by default. The warning gives occasional users less to remember.

Local Disk Tab

If Configure drives independently is ticked, the controls on this tab are enabled.

Each drive gets a tab. As the window is fixed height, my guess is the tabs become scrollable if they don’t fit on one line.

Foraging in the Bin

Like using a folder in Windows Explorer with some customisations:

• Window uses the Recycle Bin icon.
• Tasks pane is called Recycle Bin Tasks instead of File and Folder Tasks.
• Tasks pane has items relevant solely to the Recycle Bin.
• Defaults to the Details view.
• Has some unique columns, such as Original Location and Date Deleted.

41 Files

When you empty the Recycle Bin, it asks if you are sure. It says how many items will be deleted. In this case, 41 items.

The box has:

• Same width whatever the message. This causes a gap to the right.
• Same height whatever the message. This causes a gap below the message.
• Buttons are in the bottom right instead of bottom center.

Judging by the gaps on both axes, I think this layout is wrong. Common message boxes shrink to fit their content and have centered buttons. File save confirmations and error messages are prime examples.

Lots of Files

If there are lots of items, it does not say the number of items. Not sure what the threshold is or why it exists.

This message seems to be what the box was sized for.