I recently enabled Azure Active Directory (AD) Connect and wanted to turn this feature on. After doing some reading, I found a simple way to enable the AD Recycle Bin.

  1. In the management console, go to Tools > Active Directory Administrative Center
  2. Select Local Domain and in the Tasks Pane
  3. Select Enable Recycle Bin.
  4. Click OK

    NOTE: Be aware this feature cannot be disabled.

  5. Click OK.  Once enabled, wait for AD replication to complete as this is a change made on the configuration partition. This process may take a while should your organization have a large active directory infrastructure.

A very simple enablement of a process that could save you hours of restore time.  Again, this process cannot be reversed once invoked.