'Show recently used files/folders in Quick access' - cannot be really disabled?

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by freevista, Aug 25, 2015.

  1. freevista

    freevista MDL Member

    Jan 14, 2009
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    I noticed that Windows 10 doesn't really honor these settings:

    Folder Options > General > 'Show recently used files in Quick access' and 'Show frequently used folders in Quick access'.

    They are removed from Explorer, but looks like Windows still collects all recently opened files as lnk files in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent. There are also subdirs AutomaticDestinations and CustomDestinations, I guess these store the recent folders.

    I tried setting the group policy 'Do not keep history of recently opened documents' in Start Menu and Taskbar, but it had no effect. It's an old policy setting, but it worked in Windows 8. I guess this privacy feature was "lost" when coding the Quick Access feature in W10 :p
     
  2. El_Heffe

    El_Heffe MDL Member

    Jul 16, 2007
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    When I run my backup script it contains a line:

    del %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*.lnk

    I've been doing that for a long time so that my hard drive and my backups don't get all cluttered up with that junk.
     
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  3. freevista

    freevista MDL Member

    Jan 14, 2009
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    Yeah, but it would be better if it didn't collect up in the first place.
     
  4. freevista

    freevista MDL Member

    Jan 14, 2009
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    I solved this by setting it directly to registry:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
    "NoRecentDocsHistory"=dword:00000001

    It doesn't work through policy editor, yet another bug in Windows 10 (Pro).