How to Turn off Recent Items in Windows-7

Recent items are very popular list of recently used items in the computer.  In my previous article you have seen how to turn on recent items in Windows-7.

In this article I am showing you how to turn off recent items in Windows-7.

Recent Items folder is located on following path:

C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

Or  (Type following path on Run and hit Enter)

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

Turn Off Recent Items in Win-7

Turn Off Recent Items

Step-1: Right click on the Start button, and click on Properties.

Step-2: Click on Start Menu tab and Uncheck the Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar box under Privacy option.

Step-3:  Click on Customize option under Start Menu tab.

Step-4: Scroll down a little bit and Uncheck the Recent Items box as shown in following figure.

Turn Off Recent Items in Win-7

Step-5: click on OK.

Registry entry to turn on recent items in windows-7

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_TrackDocs"=dword:00000001

Step-6: Now delete registry entry if you have created from above script otherwise there is no need to delete registry entry.

  • Copy the below mentioned code in notepad and save it as .reg file to the desktop.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_TrackDocs"=dword:00000000
  • Let’s assume File Name is: Turn_Off_Recent_Items.reg
  • Double click on Turn_Off_Recent_Items.reg file or Right click on the Turn_Off_Recent_Items.reg file and click on Merge option.
  • It will ask you to Run the Turn_Off_Recent_Items.reg file.
  • Now click on Run, Yes, Yes, and OK when prompted.

Turn Off Recent Items in Win-7

If you know any other method, please let us know in comment section. Your suggestions are appreciated.

2 thoughts on “How to Turn off Recent Items in Windows-7”

  1. Jane

    Ah! This is something I’ve always wanted (I’m not kidding). Recent items are not always useful and they can be quite embarrasing at times. Thanks for this tip!

    1. I agree jane..
      It’s not always useful but if you are a good document manager and kept all your files in sub-directories under sub-directories and you opened any document some time ago… then recent document is really helpful.. cause no body wants to open so many sub-directories again and again..
      Thanks for the comment and tip How to Turn on Recent Items in Windows-7

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