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Documents, or my Recent Documents, is Windows trying to be helpful by making it easy to access recent work. Sometimes it's a little too visible.

When I click on the start menu there's a tab which reads "Documents". This tab keeps track of all the files I open, and I want to know how I can turn it off, or get rid of it all together.

It turns out that it's not all that hard to clear the list and if so desired, hide it as well.

It's called "Documents" on versions of Windows prior to XP, or if you've selected "Classic Start menu" in XP, it'll show as "My Recent Documents". Regardless of what it's called, if you click on Start and then hover you mouse over the menu item, you'll see a sub-menu pop out that includes some of the documents most recently opened through many Windows programs:

Start Menu showing Documents sub menu

Not everyone wants their most recent documents so easily visible to anyone who walks by.

The good news is that it's easy to clear. Removing it completely is just a little more work.

To clear your recent document history, right click on Start and click on Properties. You'll have either Start Menu or Classic Start Menu selected; click the corresponding Customize button. Here's the resulting dialog for the Classic Start Menu:

Classic Start Menu properties

I've highlighted the relevant section: click on the Clear button to clear the recent documents list.

In the default (not classic) Start Menu, the setting is one more level down. When you click on Properties, you'll see this dialog:

Start Menu Properties

Click on the Advanced tab:

Start Menu Properties Advanced

Click the Clear List button to clear the list.

To turn off the recent document history, things get just a little more complicated. Maybe.

That last dialog we pictured had something interesting in it:

Start Menu Properties Advanced highlighting the list document option

If you use the default Start Menu, this option does exactly what we want. Uncheck List my most recently opened documents and the "My Recent Documents" menu item will disappear.

Unfortunately that setting does not affect the Classic Start Menu so if you're using Classic Start Menu (as I am), things get more interesting.

If you're running Windows XP Pro, the safest way to make this, and many other configuration changes, is to use the Group Policy Editor. Click on Start, then Run... enter "gpedit.msc" and click on OK:

Run menu item with gpedit.msc

Once you're in the group policy editor, expand un turn User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and then Start Menu and Taskbar:

Group Policy Editor open on 'Remove Documents menu from Start Menu'

As you can see, there's a setting that sounds exactly like what we're looking for: Remove Documents menu from Start Menu. Double click on that to get:

Group Policy Editor editing 'Remove Documents menu from Start Menu'

Click on "Enabled", and click on OK.

This setting requires that you reboot before it takes effect. Once you do:

Start Menu, showing no Documents item

You'll notice that there's no "Documents" item.

If you're running Windows XP Home you may not have the group policy editor. That means you'll need to edit the registry directly - be sure to back it up first.

Start, Run, "regdt32":

Start Run of regedt32

Navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer:

Registry Editor open on Explorer Policies

Double click on No RecentDocsMenu and set the Value Data to 1. Click OK, and close registry editor.

As before, a reboot might be required before this setting change takes effect.

Article C3124 - August 21, 2007 « »

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Leo Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed. After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.

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Recent Comments
25 Comments
Richard FDisk
May 6, 2009 8:41 PM

No GPedit in XP Home (so home users are supposed to know how to edit the registry; good one MS)
There are a couple of extra settings that I found on my XP Pro system that are helpful for keeping the system private:

> User Configuration
-> Administrative Templates
--> Start Menu & Task Bar section

- Clear Document History at Log off
(Clear history of recently opened documents on exit.)

- Do not keep history of recently opened documents
(Prevents the operating system and installed programs from creating and displaying shortcuts to recently opened documents.)

- Turn off user tracking
(Disables user tracking. This setting prevents the system from tracking the programs users run, the paths they navigate, and the documents they open...)

Sandy
November 5, 2009 7:50 AM

I have followed all the steps for both types of start menus including 'Clear Document History at Log Off', "Do not keep history of recently opened documents' and 'Turn off user tracking'. I have rebooted in order for the changes to take effect however the system seems to be returning to default settings and the changes I made are showing again as not configured. I am using XP Pro... any ideas?

Suzanne
August 13, 2010 12:15 PM

I have read the above instructions to turn off the Recent Documents History. I am running win xp Home and the Classic Start Menu. Navigating all the way to \POLICIES\EXPLORER, there is no "NORECENTDOCSMENU" in the right pane anywhere. Now what do I do? Please help. Thanks.

sheikh
June 17, 2012 6:20 PM

hi, I am new in server 2003. i have a machine which is my server 2003 R2 standard and a client machine which has XP SP2. I want to remove my document from my start menu when a user logs in. can anyone pls tell me how can i do that?

Raj
October 26, 2012 6:08 AM

thanks a lot for helping to remove 'my recent documents'

regards