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CLEANING UP YOUR RECENT DOCUMENTS LIST

Some people are paranoid about having a list of all the documents they have been recently working on in the "Documents" folder accessible from the Start button. If you want to completely clear out this list, it is easy to do so as follows: first right-click the Taskbar. Second, click on "Properties". Third, click "Start Menu Programs", and finally, click on "Clear". The list of documents that are maintained as shortcuts in this folder come from programs written specifically for Windows that you have recently used, or from documents you've accessed in Explorer or My Computer.

If you don't necessarily want to completely empty this list, but perhaps only delete one item or a few of them, then this is easy to do also. The first thing you should do is ensure that the "Show all files" option is checked in the Options screen accessed by clicking the View menu in Explorer. (It's called Folder Options in Win98/ME and reached from the Tools menu.) The reason this has to be done is that otherwise you won't be able to see the "Windows\Recent" folder in Explorer, for "Recent" is by default a hidden folder. Now go into Explorer, right-drag the icon for the "Windows\Recent" folder to the desktop and choose "Create Shortcut(s) here" when you release the Mouse button. This creates a shortcut to the Recent Documents folder, which will open up in folder view to show you its contents. Now you can delete any ones you wish by right-clicking and choosing "Delete" from the context menu.