What's the easiest way to place a trashcan alias on my desktop?

You could try dragging /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes/Contents/Resources/TrashIcon.icns into the Get Info window for the Alias. Upper left corner.

Just because I'm interested, not because I'm trying to judge your needs but, why is having the trashcan on the desktop necessary if the trashcan is present in the dock? What is the benefit?

FWIW, I couldn't get my suggestion to work.

@Meg I was going to ask but I figured I wouldn't understand the answer. 😉

I might not either but, if there's some advantage to it, it might be good to know.

Personally I don't like anything on my desktop.

@RenfieldFM I think the only way to do what you want is change the trash folder icon first, then create an alias.

dialabrain wrote:

Personally I don't like anything on my desktop.

I am not an especially tidy person. 🙂

Meg St._Clair wrote:

I am not an especially tidy person. 🙂

Me either. If you could only see my computer room. 😮

As an old-timer who started using Macs in 1985, I used to lament the "loss" of the trash can on the desktop, but I came to realize that 1) it does not make much sense, and 2) there are far easier ways to send things to the trash (e.g. Command-delete, or control-click and choose Move to Trash) that don't require seeing the Desktop or dragging all around the screen.

But I am not one to turn my back on a challenge, so here is a solution for you.

All you need is a simple Automator application, and dialabrain's suggestion to paste an icon onto it (this time it will work, because we're not going to to put an icon on an alias but on the actual application).

Here is a screenshot of the Automator application. It is extremely short, just one action. You want to it to appear on the desktop, so save it to, er... the Desktop.

As dialabrain suggested, copy and paste the actual Trash icon onto this, using the Get Info window.

You will be able to have a desktop like this (note: in my case, at first the app still had the automator icon; the trash icon only appeared after I logged out and back in)

Limitations of this method: the icon is static, it does not reflect the status of the trash being empty or not; and you can't control-click to empty the trash.

Nice work. 😎

I agree with dialabrain your solution is as elegant as it is going to get.

For what its worth a quick and dirty solution would have been

ln -s /Users/username/.Trash /Users/username/Desktop/Trash

You could then copy&paste a suitable icon on to it.

As a reminder to everyone the disadvantages of having a folder or other item on the desktop are -

• It can be hidden behind the windows of other programs
• Every additional icon on the desktop has to be considered when redrawing the desktop picture when windows are moved which can slow things down
• If you have ever seen a user login who has dozens or even hundreds of files on their desktop the login process can takes ages as a result

All the above is why Apple have designed things to as much as possible 'encourage' through automation not putting files on the Desktop, e.g. Downloads go to the Downloads folder these days.

John Lockwood wrote:

If you have ever seen a user login who has dozens or even hundreds of files on their desktop the login process can takes ages as a result.

Maybe I should tidy up.....

RenfieldFM wrote:

Meg St._Clair wrote:

Just because I'm interested, not because I'm trying to judge your needs but, why is having the trashcan on the desktop necessary if the trashcan is present in the dock? What is the benefit?

I don't think it's necessary. I just said I'd find it useful. Because I have my dock hidden and it feels smoother and easier to drag directly from the window, out onto the desktop to the side, without having to hover over the dock, wait for the dock to appear, then drop onto the icon.

Thank you very much for satisfying my curiosity. I am always interested in the why behind questions as I often learn useful things. I have my dock pop up when necessary and mostly use full screen apps so, this probably wouldn't help me.

Best of luck.