Windows xp remove recent documents list

The purpose of this feature is to provide quick access to files that a user is working on. In the interest of enhanced privacy, many users and administrators prefer not to have these files listed. Although you can prevent this list from being shown on the File menu in the programs, there is no built-in method for removing the list or for preventing its display in other locations. You can, however, edit the Microsoft Windows registry to clear the list of the most recently used files.

This article describes how to delete the files that are listed when you click File , click Open or Save As , and then look under the File name box. After following the steps listed in this article, no files will be listed under the File name box.

This article does not discuss how to delete the files that are listed on the File menu. When the Recently used file list option is not checked on the General tab of the Options dialog box in Office , in Office XP, or in Office programs, Word continues to save shortcuts in the default location. The default location is as follows:. To delete the most recently used files list in the Microsoft Office suites, follow these steps:. In the Display area, click to select the number of files in the Show this number of Recent Documentslist.

To modify the registry key and to clear the most recently used files list in a program in Office, follow these steps. This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry.

However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.

I have the same question Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. Anannya Podder. Hi, Have you made any changes to the computer prior to this issue? Do you have any third party cleaning software installed on your computer? You may try these steps and check: Method 1: Follow these steps and check if it helps in fixing the issue:. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: How to back up and restore the registry in Windows a.

Double-click the NoRecentDocsHistory key f. When you right-click on a program from your taskbar, the list will be gone. However, this is a bit misleading in two ways. Firstly, when I went ahead and opened Word, all of my recent documents were listed there! So to truly remove the list of recent documents, you have to clear it from the application itself. For Word, open the program, click on File and then Options. Click on Advanced in the left menu and scroll down till you see the Display section.

Here you will see the Show this number of Recent Documents option. Go ahead and change that value to 0. Now the list will be gone from Word itself. Secondly, setting the number of recent items to display in jump lists to 0 is misleading because even though you may not see the list anymore when you right-click, Windows is still storing the history!

For example, go ahead and change the value back from 0 to something else like 5. To prevent Windows from storing the history altogether, you have to right-click on Start , go to Properties again and click on the Start Menu tab. You will see under the Privacy section a checkbox for Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar.

Go ahead and uncheck that box and now Windows will no longer store the history of your recently opened documents for any program.

As mentioned before, the individual program itself may store a list of recent documents, which has to be cleared manually.