Recent Items - Turn On or Off

How to Turn Recent Items On or Off in Windows 7​

   Information

Recent Items is a list of your recently used files on the right side of the Start Menu, Taskbar Windows Explorer icon link, in the Navigaton Pane Recent Places, and in Jump Lists. This will show you how to turn Recent Items on or off in Windows 7.

   Note

The hidden system folder Recent Items is located at:

C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items

OR

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items

If you go to the Recent Items folder location above and you have a yellow folder named Recent instead of one named Recent Items with an icon, then right click on the Recent folder and click Delete. Type shell:recent in the white line (Start Search) area of the Start Menu, and press Enter. Logoff and logon, or restart the computer, to rebuild the folder back to the default Recent Items. Recent Items will not function correctly if is not set as the default Recent Items folder.

If this did not fix the Recent Items folder, then see the post at this link to make sure that the registry locations at the link have the correct locations entered for them.

EXAMPLE: Recent Items
NOTE: If Recent Items is turned on, the these are the locations (Taskbar, Start Menu, Navigation Pane) that you will see your recent items listed.

OPTION ONE

To Turn Recent Items On or Off in Start Menu Properties

1. Right click on the Start button, and click on Properties.

2. To Turn Recent Items On A) Check the Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar box. (see screenshot below step 4)
NOTE: If you just turned on Recent Items, then it may take a bit after opening the recents items a few times before they actually show up.

B) Go to step 4.
3. To Turn Recent Items Off A) Uncheck the Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar box. (see screenshot below step 4)
4. Click on OK. (see screenshot below)
5. If you turned on recent items, then be sure to also set how many recent items you want displayed.

   Tip

If you turned on recent items, and would like to have Frequent (recent items) display in the Internet Explorer taskbar jump list, then you will need to be sure to add (check) "Internet Explorer History" to the Indexed Location.

OPTION TWO

To Turn Recent Items On or Off using a REG File Download

1. To Turn Recent Items On
NOTE: This is the default setting. A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below. Turn_On_Recent_Items_in_Start_Menu.reg

Download


B) Go to step 3.
2. To Turn Recent Items Off A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below. Turn_Off_Recent_Items_in_Start_Menu.reg

Download


3. Save the .reg file to the desktop.

4. Right click on the downloaded .reg file, and click on Merge.

5. Click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK when prompted.

6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

OPTION THREE

To Add or Remove "Recent Items" Button from the Start Menu

NOTE: This will allow you to add or remove the Recent Items button from the right dark side of the Start Menu. If you add it, then you will need to turn on Recent Items on OPTION ONE above to have them listed. 1. Open the Start Menu Customize window.

2. Scroll down a bit, and check the Recent Items box, and click on OK. (See screenshot below)
3. Click on OK. (See link in step 1)
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Enable or Disable Recent Items in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Turn Recent Programs On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Recent Programs in Windows 7
• How to Customize the Windows 7 Start Menu
• How to Pin or Unpin a Program to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Open and Use Windows 7 Start Menu and Taskbar Jump Lists
• How to Pin or Unpin Items in Windows 7 Jump Lists
• How to Backup and Restore Jump Lists in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Pinning and Unpinning of Items in Windows 7 Jump Lists
• How to Change the Number of Recent Items to Display in Windows 7 Jump Lists
• How to Clear Recent Items and Documents on Exit of Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Explorer Recent Search Box Suggestions
• How to Edit or Reset Windows 7 Explorer Recent Search Box Suggestions
• How to Reset and Clear All Items in Windows 7 Jump Lists
• How to Create a Start Menu Properties Shortcut in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the Maximum Number of Recent Items to Display in Start Menu
• How to Clear Recent Items List in Windows 7

 

[Brink]

Hello NeoRitz, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Could you post back with a screenshot showing all of the right pane at each these two registry locations below? There may be some entry at either one of these locations that may be responsible for this.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

 

[neoritz]

Thanks, matter resolved

Thanks a lot Brink,
I'm posting both the screen shots here.
Deleted the key for NoRecentDocsHistory in CurrentUser Policies.
And then restarted the system.
Now the option's enabled.
Thanks and regards,
NeoRitz

 

[Brink]

You're welcome NeoRitz. That would be the one. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

UPDATE:
New tutorial for enabling and disabling Recent Items.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104503-recent-items-enable-disable.html

 

[nsbjsn]

Option 1 restored my jump lists, Thanks. It may be a coincidence. But my jump lists disappeared when I installed google chrome

 

[Brink]

Hello Nsbjsn,

When recent items and programs is turned off and back on, it will clear their history leaving a nearly empty jump list. You'll have to reopen these items again (possibly a few times) before they eventually show back up again.

Is the jump list completely missing, or just empty?

Installing chrome may have reset them again if just empty. If completely missing, then see if uninstalling chrome restores them.

 

[nsbjsn]

All is fixed, didn't have to uninstall chrome. I just used your option one above, Thanks

 

[Brink]

That's great news Nsbjsn. I'm happy to hear that you got it fixed.

 

[xiaolufer]

The hidden system folder Recent Items is located at:

C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items

If you go to the Recent Items folder location above and you have a yellow folder named Recent instead of one named Recent Items with a icon, then right click on the Recent folder and click Delete. Type shell:recent in the white line (Start Search) area of the Start Menu and press Enter. Logoff and logon, or restart the computer, to rebuild the folder back to the default Recent Items. Recent Items will not function correctly if is not set as the default Recent Items folder

I had a 'recent' folder instead of 'recent items' folder initially in appdata/roaming folder and I accidentally dragged it out to desktop instead of right clicking and deleting it. Once it was in the desktop, the delete option when the icon is right clicked disappeared, and the only way to remove it was to drag into the recycle bin and empty it. After that I thought typing shell:recent would create a new and proper 'Recent Items' in the appdata\roaming\Microsoft\Windows folder. A working Recent Items folder seems to have been created but instead it is now always created on the desktop instead of the original position (the appdata\roaming). Even after restarting, it does not solve the issue. Any ideas or solutions?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Xiaolufer, and welcome to Seven Forums.

See if dragging or moving the Recent Items on your desktop back into the C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows may help.

If not, then make sure that the registry (regedit.exe) locations below have the correct path for the Recent expandable string value in the right pane. If not, then right click on Recent, click on Modify, enter the correct path, and click on OK. Afterwards, restart the computer and do what you have in the quote box again to fix the Recent folder.



HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
(Use the same path, but substitute User-Name in the path with your user account's name instead.)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
(Use the exact same path as below for Recent.)


Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[xiaolufer]

thanks! dragging didnt work but changing the registry as u mentioned did

 

[Brink]

thanks! dragging didnt work but changing the registry as u mentioned did

You're most welcome Xiaolufer. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[Ian108]

Thanks Brink

Excellent tutorial that solved this issue for me. Clearest I have found anywhere.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Ian. Thank you.

 

[nalbe]

 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"Start_TrackProgs"=dword:00000001
; Store and display recently opened programs in the Start menu
"Start_TrackDocs"=dword:00000001
; Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar

or

@echo off
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "Start_TrackProgs" /t REG_DWORD /d 0x1 /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "Start_TrackDocs"  /t REG_DWORD /d 0x1 /f
pause & exit

 

[pantera25]

wow been searching for this fix thank you so much worked perfect for me

 

[MattTINS]

Thanks

Thanks for this. It fixed my issue which resulted by remoting into a Vista environment and apparently changing the profile's default setting for storing the recent items in the taskbar.

 

[PatD]

When I right-click on taskbar > Properties > Start Menu, I cannot check "Store and Display Recently Opened Items in the Start Menu and on the Taskbar" because it is grayed out.

I located the C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
and it appeared empty for some time, even though Properties indicates 2 folder and 30 files (none hidden).
Suddenly a subfolder appeared called CustomDestinations (modified just now) with 24 files with names ending in .customDestinations-ms
Listing them from a command window shows the other folder is called AutomaticDestinations with files ending in .automaticDestinations-ms Not too useful.

I even tried the registry fix but still cannot get "Recent Places" or "recent items" to work anywhere.

 

[Brink]

Hello Pat, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It sounds like you may have Recent Items disabled since the Store and Display Recently Opened Items in the Start Menu and on the Taskbar option is grayed out. See if doing step 2 in OPTION ONE of the tutorial below may be able to enable Recent Items and allow you to check/uncheck the option afterwards.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104503-recent-items-enable-disable.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[PatD]

Did that already but no change. "Start_TrackProgs" and "Start_TrackDocs" are both set to 1.

I noticed %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent goes to
my profile but displays as: Recent Items.

 

[Brink]

"Start_TrackProgs" and "Start_TrackDocs" is not what the tutorial to enable Recent Items sets. This is different setting instead. Please give step 2 in OPTION ONE a try to see if it may help afterwards.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104503-recent-items-enable-disable.html

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoRecentDocsHistory"=-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoRecentDocsHistory"=-

Yep, it should be "Recent Items".