Clear Recent Documents in the XP Start Menu
Nobody is asking why you want to clear the recent documents from your XP start menu, but we'll show you how to do it anyway.
Right click the start menu icon and select Properties. Click the Start Menu tab and click on Customize.
In the Customize Start Menu window click on the Advanced tab.
Now you have two options:
1) Click the Clear List button to just clear the recent documents.
2) Uncheck the "List my most recently opened documents" box to make the entire feature go away.
Mysticgeek is the resident IT expert at How-To Geek and a huge rock music fan. When he's not writing about Microsoft Office, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 05/28/07 and tagged with: Windows
Re Disabling 'My Recent Documents' in XP, you said;
2) Uncheck the "List my most recently opened documents" box to make the entire feature go away.
But that's not the case. A record still accumulates in that file - very bad for privacy, etc.
Also, just got another PC with Vista (Vista is BAD), and I wonder if it's got a similar file.
Great site anyway. Thanks for the help on many other subjects.
This does not completely clear recent documents from the computer. Vista tracks recent documents in another folder, "Recent Documents". This folder is found inside the "Searches" folder of the login user. Also tracked is "Recent E-mail", "Recent Pictures and Videos", "Recently Changed" etc.
How to prevent Vista from tracking these files in these folders? I thought I could delete the files in these search folders but when I delete the files, it will actually delete the actual files in the source folders. It seems the files in the search folders are not shortcuts but actual files. Strange, how could one file appear in 2 folders - the source and the search folder.
If there is no way to prevent Vista from tracking user files in the search folders, how to clear the search folders?