Clear history of recently opened items on exit in Windows Vista
The Start Menu has a Recent Items list that displays the last 16 files you opened. For those wanting privacy, this list can prove to be an inconvenience. However, you can edit your settings through the group policy editor. This feature can come in handy for those with one account to log in to their computer but don’t want to leave any tracks on what they were last were doing.
1) Access your group policy editor: Open Start, and type gpedit.msc in the Search bar.
2) Navigate to User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Start Menu and Taskbar
3) Edit the settings for “Clear history of recently opened documents on exit.” Right click this setting and choose properties.
4) Enable this feature.
After enabling this rule, your recent items list will clear itself each time you shut down your PC, so you don’t have to worry about clearing it manually every time you log off.
April 12th, 2007 at 9:27 am
where is the gpedit.msc file located. I have tried every type of search on my computer but I can’t find it. I have Vista home premium.
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:24 pm
When I open my Group Policy Editor it says, “MMC could not create this snap-in.” I’m using Windows Vista Home Premium. What do I do?
July 18th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I’d like to expand the number of Recent items from 16 to 32 or 50. Can this be done?
November 5th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
I, too, could not find gpedit.msc in Vista Home Premium. How I solved this was right-clicking the Start Pearl and selecting Properties. Under the Start Menu tab you can deselect “Store and display a list of recently displayed files” and “Store and display a list of recently displayed programs.” After applying this you’ll still have the recent items button in your start menu. Right click it and send it to the trash. To make sure that everything is deleted, search for “recent items” in your start menu and delete the folder. I hope this helps.
December 30th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Only on Vista Ultimate
March 29th, 2008 at 4:47 am
[...] Clear history of recently opened items on exit in Windows Vista [...]
September 10th, 2008 at 5:29 am
In any version of vista the history of search and used files and docs is held in a shortcut folder. (also in XP too.)
Folder is c:\users\username\Recent
The username is your log on name ie c:\users\fred\Recent
Recent is a hidden file but will display when you give the path correctly. In the directory(folder) you will see your list of temp files. Just delete the short cuts
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April 21st, 2009 at 7:00 am
Thanks a mill.