Comments on: Create a Shortcut to Delete Recent Items in Windows Vista (or XP’s) Start Menu

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:16:06 +0000

Alex and Valerie:

The reason you do not see ‘Clear Recent Items List’ is probably that you used the geek’s script or some third party tool to delete everything from the Recent folder on your Vista machine.

Geek: your script is dangerous to run on Vista – it deletes the default desktop.ini file also. You may not notice the effects immediately – but the next time you restart your computer, you’ll find that Recent Items folder has lost it’s special properties including the ‘Clear Recent Items List’ option.

To fix the missing ‘Clear Recent Items’ option on Vista:

a) Delete the whole Recent Items folder. (If you cannot delete the Recent Items folder, use the geek’s script to delete the desktop.ini in there; restart your computer; and then try again.)

b) Type ’shell:Recent’ at the start menu search box. This will recreate the Recent Items folder with the default desktop.ini file.

c) Restart your computer.

thanks.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:43:33 +0000

I’m having the same problem as Alex two posts above me. Sometime in the last month, my recent items folder has stopped working properly. It does exactly what Alex says, and therefore provides very little useful information. It keeps files in Recent Items actual folder a really long time, thus making the alphabetical list on the Start menu really obsolete. No matter how old, it lists files starting with numbers, so an alphanumeric list as opposed to a true reverse chronology.

Also, at the same time my index function no longer searches for WordPerfect documents, just, all of sudden for no apparent recent. I too am wondering whether this is a Windows Vista Update gone awry.

By: RJFPC

RJFPC — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:37:47 +0000

Works good for me on WinXP…

I simply created a .txt file, then opened it, then pasted the script, then saved it, then renamed it to cleardocs.js.

Then just double click it or it’s shortcut and whalla!
Clears the recent documents!
woot!

Thanks Geek!

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:24:32 +0000

I’m using Vista Home Premium, and I see no “clear recent items” option. I’ve tried right-clicking on the actual Recent Items button, and on items in the list itself. The option is not there. I did a search for “clear recent items list” in Help & Support and found nothing.

It used to be there, but after some update it went away. You’re not crazy, mine is missing too.

It is also pretty useless, as it keeps such a long list, but displays them alphabetically. This means that files that start with numbers are the only ones on the list unless I have cleared it recently. Does anyone know how to change the number of things smaller, and also bring back the clear list function?

By: Bo-G�ran Hammargren

Bo-G�ran Hammargren — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:26:55 +0000

I have been working with this problem for an endless time.
Thanks for the tip – it made my day.
I also noticed on my PC that the number of Maxdocument is much less than I defined
becuese it counts the folders as well as the files.
Your proram was of much help because the “ClearRecent DocsOnExit”
doesn’t do what it is supposed to do. Thanks again

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:10:33 +0000

Worked great – now how about adding Clear Temp files, Cookies, Temp Internet Files etc – There are plenty of programs out there that do these tasks but all of them do everything and give no choice of what the user wants to do. I tried to modify the script for The recent Folder to delete cookies but all I got was Access denied

By:

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:03:27 +0000

haha i did it myself, without downloading the .zip, and it works out just fine.. thx geek

By: Vista user is confused

Vista user is confused — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:54:54 +0000

By: n00b

n00b — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:29:09 +0000

It has been useful for me!

With Vista you have the choice of the Vista start menu or the Win95 start menu (try it).

IT IS NOT THE WINXP START MENU!!!!!!!!!!

So if you want a recent documents shortcut you have to make it yourself, which means there is no rightclick and clear documents.

Thanks for this! – Need a way of listing recently used programs… where are they held?

By: Brog

Brog — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:17:53 +0000

Why not just make a super-simple batch file to do it in one line?

DEL /Q C:\Docume~1\%UserName%\Recent\*

Works for me..