Don't Live Out of Your Recycle Bin. Empty Your Trash!

At home, you don't store everything you need in your trash can or let your trash sit.  Your trash is contaminated; letting it sit would only allow the contamination to spread to the things you value.

The same is true for the trash on your computer.  Recycle bins and trash folders are places where viruses can hide.  You need to empty your recycle bins regularly to avoid contaminating the rest of your computer.  Make the following part of a weekly clean-up routine:

1. Identify old files and messages.  (See Penn State Policy AD35 University Archives and Records Management and the General Retention Schedule for details.)  If you still wish to keep them, archive them to CD/DVD.  Then delete them.
2. In Thunderbird (or any other email client you use), delete all the messages in your Junk folder.
3. In Thunderbird (or any other email client you use), empty your Trash folder.
4. In Thunderbird (or any other email client you use), compact your folders.
5. In Windows (or any other operating system you use), empty your Recycle Bin.

Thanks to Tim Arnold, DLT, for suggesting this tip.