How to clear or delete my recent documents in Windows

Posted on January 10, 2008 at 8:10 am

Looking for a way to delete the recent documents list in Windows? Don’t you hate it sometimes how many things Windows tracks, like all of the most recent documents you have opened in ANY program. If you want to disable recent documents and remove/clear your most recent documents, it’s actually a pretty simple process!

I’m going to explain the method for clearing the my recent documents list in Windows XP, but the same holds true for Windows Vista. So here’s a step by step guide to deleting your my recent documents list:

First, right-click on the Start Button and choose Properties:

You’ll now be in the Start Menu and Taskbar properties dialog box. You should already be on the Start Menu tab. Go ahead and click on the Customize button.

You should now be viewing the Customize Start Menu dialog box. Go ahead and click on the Advanced tab.

At the bottom, you’ll see a section called Recent Documents. Click Clear List to clear the most recent list of documents. If you do not want Windows to record your recent documents at all, uncheck the List my most recently opened documents box. That’s it!

Now the option on the Start Menu for most recent documents will be removed and nothing will be recorded! Have any questions, post a comment! Enjoy!

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» Filed Under Computer Tips

5 Responses to “How to clear or delete my recent documents in Windows”

Vaibhav said on : January 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am

I think the better solution is to run utility like CCleaner once a week or so. This will take care of your recent documents, and the recent files captured by other programs like Word, Excel etc.

akishore said on : January 10th, 2008 at 11:15 am

Vaibhav, I agree! If you have CCleaner, it clears out your recent documents and browser history also. Thanks.

Dinesh said on : January 10th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

Its easy way to clear documents. Excellent

chinapapa said on : March 24th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

this is the most best site I have visited. good job.

st3po2000 said on : May 5th, 2008 at 11:15 pm

You must modify the Windows XP Registry to stop XP from keeping track of your recent documents. The start menu options above dont stop the shortcuts from being stored under your profile folder.

Registry Key is
HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Add DWORD value named NoRecentDocsHistory with Data Value of 1 to above, save, and reboot.

MS Tweak UI has a Recent Documents function, as well. Available from Microsoft.