Windows 7: Residual File Names in Save/Save As Dialog Boxes

With regard to clearing lists of [recently opened and/or saved] file names in Windows file dialog boxes, Orbital Shark had described the following procedure (from his 01 Nov., '10 post-) How to Clear This Dialog Box ? :

"If you want to selectively clear the Common Dialog file names MRU, you need to delete these two registry keys manually:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ ComDlg32 \ LastVisitedPidlMRU

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ ComDlg32 \ OpenSavePidlMRU"

My question is as follows (and it is probably a silly one, therefore please bear with me and thank you):

Is the prescribed procedure to delete the *actual keys* ("LastVisitedPidlMRU" & "OpenSavePidlMRU"), or instead to delete the *contents* of those keys? i.e.: Should I select/highlight the key within the left panel of the Regisgtry Editor, and then select delete; or should I select/highlight the key within the left panel, and then select/highlight in the right panel all the contents of that respective key, and then delete all those contents (not the actual key itself) indicated in the right panel?

Thanks much for your patience and for your help! Win

Hello Windough, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Deleting those actual keys would work best. If you like, the tutorial below will help you do this automatically instead of having to manually do it in regedit.

Common Dialog Boxes - Clear Dropdown List of Recent Files History

In addition, you might look at this tutorial if you do not want to have this history kept.

Common Dialog Boxes - Enable or Disable Dropdown List of Recent Files

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thank you for your answer, Shawn . So that I better understand the underlying process, if I go ahead and delete the actual keys in the registry, but I do *not* modify the *ongoing* group policies [via the Local Group Policy Editor], will the keys (both of them) simply be restored to the registry the next time that I either save and/or open any file?

Thanks again! Win

You're most welcome.

Yes, that's correct. The next time you save or open a file, the registry keys will automatically be recreated to keep the history of recent files again if you didn't disable it in group policy.