When you open files or folders – Windows remembers all the history, and in File Explorer, you can see the recently opened folders and files. This is good because it may happen that you forget where the document that you opened half an hour ago is. On the other hand, if you are not the only who uses the PC, you don’t want your history of viewed files to be recorded. In this article, we are going to share the guide that will show you how to turn off recent items and frequent places in Windows 10.
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How to Turn Off Recent Items and Frequent Places in Windows 10
Where are locations of “Recent items” and “Frequently places”?
In Windows 10, recent items are placed in these locations:
% AppData% \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Recent Items
% AppData% \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Recent \ AutomaticDestinations
% AppData% \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Recent \ CustomDestinations
I.e. open File Explorer, and in the address bar put one of the lines and press Enter, and then you will see their contents. You can view it from the Start menu, right-click on the app and you will see recent files. You can check it also opening the Quick Access in File Explorer you will find the “Frequently Used Folders” and “Recent files”. In the “File” menu, you can also find them.
Disable “Recent files” and “Frequently used places”
The first method is to turn off the recent files: go to Start => Settings => Personalization
On the left side, find “Start”, click on it, and then on the right side, turn off “Show recently added apps” and “Show recently opened items in the Jump List to the Start or the taskbar”
The second method is using Group Policy Editor:
- Press Win + R;
- Enter the command gpedit.msc;
- Open the “User Configuration” => Administrative Templates => Start Menu and taskbar. Find “Do not store information about recently opened documents” and with a double-click, you will see the options where you have to choose “Enabled and click Apply.
The third method is using the folder settings.
- Open the Explorer => click on the tab “View” => and select “Options”
- In the “General” tab, remove the check mark from “Show recently used files in Quick Access” and “Show frequently used folders in Quick Access” and then click “Apply”.
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