Enabling and Restoring Recycle Bin in Active Directory Domain Services in Server 2012 R2

The recycle bin in active directory allows you to recover objects including user, computer and organizational units (OU) that has been deleted unintentionally. Recycle bin is not enabled by default. I will show you how to enable and restore it.

Enabling Recycle Bin

Step 1: Open server manager dashboard from task bar. Click Tools and scroll down the menu. Click Active Directory Administrative Center

Step 2: Click Enable Recycle Bin located on right corner of window

Step 3: Click OK

Step 4: Click OK and you are done enabling recycle bin

Restoring Recycle Bin

Step 1: From server manager, click Active Directory Users and Computers

Step 2: Right-click any user and scroll the menu. Click Delete

Step 3: Click Yes

Step 4: Again go to Active Directory Administrative Center from server manager dashboard

Step 5: Click Deleted Objects

Step 5: Select the user and click Restore located on right corner

As soon as you are done with above steps the user will be successfully restored and will be visible in active directory users and computer.