Solved How to update the items stored in the window's Previous Locations menu

[hellopaul]

Hello,

I'm sure this has been asked many times before, but I cannot find a satisfactory answer to my problem, despite many searches. The mysterious 'previous locations' at the top of a window seems like it should be very useful:

But, in common with many other users out there, my system only displays these same, useless few folders which I haven't accessed in months. The double-arrow thing to the right - which looks like some kind of 'update' function - seemingly does absolutely nothing. I have, therefore, completely ignored this. But I'd LOVE to have quick access to my recent stuff - I know there's the sub-menu from the Start menu, but this is no use when I'm saving a file (unless there was a way to force the file selector dialog box to jump to a location that's already open in an Explorer window on the desktop, like on a Mac).

I found what should have been a useful link on Microsoft's site, but it's broken:

Microsoft Community

On a similar note, why does the search box sometimes appear and sometimes not appear in the top-right corner? There seems to be no logic to its behaviour.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Brink]

Hello Paul,

If you like, you could turn off and on recent programs to reset and clear auto suggest in Windows Explorer.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2275-recent-programs-turn-off.html

 

[hellopaul]

I tried all that earlier today, but that only affects the Recent Items submenu in the Start menu, and does not affect the Previous Locations menu at all.

I just found this:
Windows Explorer's Address Bar dropdown list of previous folders - Microsoft Community
and did as it suggested - rebuilding the index. It's taking a while...I will report back on whether or not it fixes anything!

 

[hellopaul]

Nope. Indexing complete...exactly the same old folders in the Previous Locations dropdown.

 

[Brink]

It's strange. Turning off recent programs using OPTION ONE below, apply, and turning on recent programs cleared those for me.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2275-recent-programs-turn-off.html

 

[hellopaul]

Huh! That's weird - I tried exactly that earlier today, and it achieved nothing. So I thought I'd try it again - and voila! Sorted!

The mysteries and lack of logic in operating systems.....

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Brink]

Great news.

 

[hellopaul]

Having successfully emptied out the junk from the Previous Locations menu, how do I get stuff back in there? Logic would suggest that it should auto-populate with the most recently used folders, but as we all know, computers do not rely on logic.

Despite having used the computer all day for the past 5 days since I cleared that menu out, it only contains one item. Any suggestions on how to get useful, recent stuff into there would be greatly appreciated.

The (seemingly unrelated) 'Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar' option in the start menu is ON.

 

[Brink]

I find that opening locations from the address bar adds them faster.

 

[hellopaul]

Yes indeed - if I copy a file location from the address bar then paste it into another window, it then gets remembered by the drop-down menu. A bit of an awkward faff, but if it was straightforward it wouldn't be Windows!

 

[Brink]

LOL, tru dat.

 

[hellopaul]

I came back to this thread because I had the same problem and couldn't remember what the cryptic procedure was to fix it. But it's still incredibly annoying that once the menu has filled up with about 10 items, Windows does not update that list with recent items - the old stuff from many months ago just stays there until I go through the Taskbar > Properties > Start Menu > uncheck the Privacy options, Apply, then recheck them (I have to do this procedure twice for it to have any effect).

Might there be some clever way to force Windows to show Recent Items in this recent items list, rather than Ancient Items That You Have Not Accessed For Months?