How to do it...

You can enable the Active Directory Recycle Bin from within the Active Directory Administrative Center, when you're signed in with an account that is a member of the Enterprise Admins group on a domain controller that runs Windows Server with Desktop Experience. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Open the Active Directory Administrative Center (dsac.exe).
2. Select the forest name in the left navigation pane.

1. In the action pane on the right, click the Enable Recycle Bin link.
   Alternatively, you can right-click the domain name in the left navigation pane, and select the Enable Recycle Bin… option from the context menu.
   The Enable Recycle Bin Confirmation popup appears:

1. In the Enable Recycle Bin Confirmation pop up, click OK.
2. The popup message labeled Active Directory Administrative Center appears:

1. Click OK:

1. After you refresh, a new container underneath the domain root named Deleted Objects appears.

On Server Core installations of Windows Server, use the following PowerShell commands:

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

Enable-ADOptionalFeature -Identity "CN=Recycle Bin Feature,CN=Optional Features,CN=Directory Service,CN=Windows NT,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=lucernpub,DC=com" -Scope ForestOrConfigurationSet –Target "lucernpub.com"

Replace lucernpub, lucernpub, and com with values for your Active Directory environment.