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

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• 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