Recycle Bin

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I want to warn everyone that Optimization in SupportAssist includes cleaning the Recycle Bin.  You can turn this off by going to the gear in the upper right-hand corner - Settings – Automate scans and optimizations – uncheck the box for “Scan your system and drivers”.  The third column (Check PC’s performance) will clean your Recycle Bin, if the box is checked.

In 3.8.0.108, under the Get Support tab,  there is no longer a procedure that insists on Optimization before you work with a DELL agent.  But, let me tell you – the first thing that a DELL agent is likely to do is to Optimize.  This means that your Recycle Bin is going to be cleaned.

In working with a DELL agent, I ALWAYS emphasize that I want to know everything that the agent is going to do and I want to give permission before s/he clicks on anything.  I have worked with DELL agents who will follow this request.  I have also worked with DELL agents whom I have to remind.  A few weeks ago, I worked with a DELL agent who agreed with my request, but when I saw that he was ready to click on a button for Optimization that I saw on the screen and after I said “I don’t want my Recycle Bin cleaned,” he said “Don’t worry. Your Recycle Bin will not be cleaned”.  THEN, afterwards, I saw that my Recycle Bin was empty!!  Either the DELL agent did not know that, for DELL, Optimization means cleaning the Recycle Bin, or he DID know it, but wanted to do the Optimization anyway.

All this is to say that you take a risk in having your Recycle Bin cleaned when you work remotely with a DELL agent.

Thank you, @DELLKaren!  The auto-empty of the recycle bin has been a real thorn in my side.  I also recently noticed that when SupportAssist dumps your bin, the "filled" icon of the bin persists.  You would not realize that it had been dumped until you refresh your desktop, sign out/in, reboot, or inspect the bin folder.

Can you show me with a screen shot what you mean by "filled" icon of the bin?  In SA, I don't see any "filled" or "empty" icon of the bin and I don't know what to look for.

Surely, @DELLKaren

When the recycle bin appears as a garbage can with wads of paper in it, as on the left, it indicates that there are items in the recycle bin.  When it appears as an empty garbage can like the one on the right, the bin is empty.  In all my many years using Windows, the only time I have ever seen the bin show a "filled" icon for an empty bin, is after SupportAssist dumps it.  A refresh of the desktop changes it to the appropriate icon, or a logout/login or reboot, but it would really be nice if SupportAssist would do a courtesy refresh of the desktop so as not to make a liar of the icon.  That way, we'd see at a glance that a dump has occurred.

Hi BBraz:

Just an FYI that Dell employee Dell-Geoffrey R posted the following  in ex-jedi's thread Prevent Automatic Recycle Bin Emptying on 10-Jul-2021, so hopefully a fix will be coming soon:

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"Hi, we just want to keep you update that the Support Assist team is working on this and there should be an enhancement list scheduled for August release."

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As I noted <here> in ex-jedi's thread, I also discovered that SupportAssist's Tune Performance scan will clean the Windows registry. I don't want SupportAssist to run a registry cleaner that silently wipes every "invalid" entry it finds in my registry and think this registry cleaner has the potential to do even more harm than the automatic emptying of the Recycle Bin.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v20H2 build 19042.1052 * Firefox v89.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2106.6 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.2.123-1.0.1358 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.0.47 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.2.1
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G 256 GB NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Hi BBraz:

Dell employee Nikhil Kiroula posted another update today in ex-jedi's Prevent Automatic Recycle Bin Emptying that pushes the expected fix back to December 2021:

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We are working on this feature and this planned for December release not with the current release/version.

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My SupportAssist self-updated from v3.10.1.23 to v3.10.3.3 today (and apparently re-installed my Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update v5.4.1.14854 that originally installed on 24-Apr-2021), and ex-jedi confirmed <here> that the v3.10.3.3 Clean Files scan still empties the Recycle Bin.

Links to release notes for SA v3.10.2 (which I never received) and the latest SA v3.10.3 are posted <here>.

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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1165 * Firefox v91.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2107.4 * MB Premium v4.4.5.130-1.0.1430 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.3.3 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v 5.4.3.15135 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.3.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G 256 GB NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Clearly Dell Support Assist has no interest in fixing this problem if after two years it remains a problem. Yes, Once again they deleted my files without my express permsission

@johngies​ It's still doing it in 2025 - happened today  :-(

I just spent too much time chatting with Dell support about this. Was told to go to the gear icon, but had to explain there was no gear icon. Then told to try the 3 lines and look for different words as the verbiage varies. Ha. Then told to click History. Sent screenshot and support person said that only shows the history, but no way to turn off scheduled scans. Right, but still couldn't tell me how to turn off scheduled scans or not empty recycle bin. Ultimately was told there is no option to turn off empty recycle bin. Still don't know how to turn off scheduled scan.At the end, rep said glad they were able to solve my issue. I said you didn't.

... Ultimately was told there is no option to turn off empty recycle bin. Still don't know how to turn off scheduled scan ...

Hi user_cb2019:

Links to the latest SupportAssist v4.10.x release notes and user guide are posted at https://www.dell.com/support/product-details/en-us/product/dell-supportassist-pcs-tablets/resources/manuals.

Instructions for configuring automatic background tasks in SupportAssist *** are available <here> in the user guide.  I removed SupportAssist from my Inspiron 5584 after my Basic 1-year service warranty expired (I found SupportAssist was too buggy and used too much RAM and CPU) but I believe you want to DISABLE the option at Settings | Scans and Optimizations | Test System Performance | Automatically boost performance, optimize network settings, and remove viruses and malware, since it is the Boost Performance scan that cleans Recycle Bin files, browser cache, temporary installation files, and log files for running programs.

*** NOTE: As stated in those instructions, you must be logged in to Windows with a user account that has Administrator rights in order to change settings for your SupportAssist automatic background tasks. Also, some settings described in the user guide (e.g., to remove viruses and malware) might not be available unless your PC has an active ProSupport Plus or Premium Support Plus service plan.
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Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.6809 * Firefox v147.0.3 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.26010.5-1.1.25110.1 * Malwarebytes Standard v5.4.8.232-149.0.5487 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * My Dell v2.2.6.0 * Fusion Service 2.2.14.0

@lmacri​ , Thanks for your reply and information. Since this is a new computer I won't remove Support Assist for a year, but thanks to your information will disable the boost performance option.

I really wish Dell would listen to it's users and give us the option to not empty the recycle bin.