Moving files into the Recycle Bin

This tip demonstrates how to use move files into the Recycle bin. When a file is deleted in Windows, it is not erased from the disk. Instead, it is moved into the Recycle bin, and can be restored easily.

Declarations

Copy this code into the declarations section of your project.

Public Type SHFILEOPSTRUCT
    hwnd As Long
    wFunc As Long
    pFrom As String
    pTo As String
    fFlags As Integer
    fAnyOperationsAborted As Long
    hNameMappings As Long
    lpszProgressTitle As Long
End Type

Public Declare Function SHFileOperation Lib _
"shell32.dll" Alias "SHFileOperationA" (lpFileOp _
As SHFILEOPSTRUCT) As Long

Public Const FO_DELETE = &H3
Public Const FOF_ALLOWUNDO = &H40

Code

Dim SHop As SHFILEOPSTRUCT
Dim strFile as string

With SHop
    .wFunc = FO_DELETE
    .pFrom = strFile
    .fFlags = FOF_ALLOWUNDO
End With

SHFileOperation SHop

Where strFile is the full path to the file you wish to move to the recycle bin.