How-To Geek

Go to Windows Explorer in Windows 7. Type something in the search box at the top right, then press Enter.

The item you typed will show every time you click on the search box. How do you disable this as it is a threat to privacy? Of course, you can press Delete to manually each and every item there but how do you disable it permanently so that it won't show at all?

ccm58, that's a good question. As far as I know, the only way to delete this history is by removing the MRU list in the registry. To see the current data from a Command Prompt, run:

reg query HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\WordWheelQuery

You will see that the data is stored in binary form, so it is not human readable in the registry. To remove the MRU entries:

reg delete HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\WordWheelQuery /va

You could put this command in a batch file. The operation could be done manually in regedit. Also, I see that Ramesh has a .reg file that you can run.

I found a way to disable this feature permanently. It is found at the end of this article at

http://dotnetwizard.net/hacks/.....windows-7/

Thanks, ScottW. The ability to disable this feature is already in Windows 7's Local Group Policy Editor. However, it takes advanced knowledge to go here. I suggest an option to disable this feature right in Windows Explorer's 'Folder & Search Options'. Then Vista users who upgrade and don't like this feature can find this option easily. Or maybe an option to 'enable/disable History' when you click on the search box.