Active Directory Recycle Bin feather introduced in Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory. However, using Active Directory Recycle Bin feather
in Windows 2008 R2 required using a complex suite of PowerShell commands.
Windows 8 introduce a new management console for Active Directory that allow you centralize the management of common Active Directory tasks
from one location.
One of settings that can be enabling in the “Active Directory Administrative Center”, is enabling Active Directory Recycle Bin feather by using a user friendly console.
Before we start to enable the new feather, a few useful tips:
a, Please note that Active Directory Recycle Bin feather require Windows 2008 R2 Forest Mode or higher.
b. Deleted Active Directory object that pass the tombstone lifetime cant be recovered by Active Directory Recycle Bin feather.
c. The tombstone lifetime attribute should be set to 180 days (the default value for new Forest).
d. You cant disable Active Directory Recycle Bin after you enabled it.
To enable and use Active Directory Recycle Bin feather, please use the following steps:
1. Under “Server Manager” press on “Tools” button.
2. From the drop menu choose “Active Directory Administrative Center”.
3. In the left side of the screen, press on the server name.
4. In the right screen (“Tasks” section) press on “Enable Recycle Bin”.
Note1: You can use instead “Enable-ADOptionalFeature” PowerShell command.
Note2: The new settings would need replicate to all the domain controllers in the forest.
4. The “Enable Recycle Bin” should be mark with a gray color.
5.Right click on the server name and choose “Deleted Objects” button.
6. Now, new Active Directory object that need to be restore (e.g. “test” user account), can be restore by one-two mouse clicks.
For further information, please review:
Active Directory Administrative Center Enhancements