By many of my friends I was asked several times “How do I remove recent documents records from my windows computer?”. So I am going to tell about it. When we work on our windows OS, our windows records all of our file or document browsing history at a place called Recent Documents. Recent Documents tells which files, folders or programs recently we have visited. So if we allow them exist it may harm our privacy. So we should Delete them regularly. There are also many free tools like CCleaner which will allow you to clear all of your windows data containing history even for third party softwares.

How to Delete Recent Documents in Windows:

(Important another: If you browse the web from a public place, you must need to clear your all surfing data/history from your browser.)

Clear Recent Documents in Windows XP :

1. Right-click on an empty space on the taskbar and click on ‘Properties.’

2. Click on the ‘Start Menu‘ tab.

3. Click on the ‘Customize’ button.

4. Click on the ‘Advanced‘ tab.

5. At the bottom, under ‘Recent Documents‘, click on the ‘Clear List‘ button.

6. Click on ‘OK‘ twice and your list will now be cleared.

Clear Recent Documents in Windows Vista and 7 :

(I will make the examples with windows 7 an described in three processes)

Process #1 :

1. Click on start menu and the search bar, search for recent . (It’s very easy to find out any program or setting link on windows vista and 7.)

search for recent documents

2. Now you will be sent to recent documents folder. And then delete all link to remove all recent documents list.

all recent documents are shown

Process #2 :

1. Go to your start menu, then click on your user name.

browse user documents from rijans

2. Now from documents list search for the link(Short cut) “Recent“. If you don’t see the link recent documents, go to tools> Folder Options > View(tab). Now uncheck the settings as I made below.

show hidden files

Then go to recent documents and delete them to clear.

all recent documents are shown

Process #3 :

It seems that, in windows 7 and Vista, the recent documents link is located at C:users<user name>recent . My windows username is rijans. So my link is C:usersrijansrecent . Type this address at windows explores(file explorer/ file manager) and reach to recent documents.

That’s all about easily removing recent documents at windows. Leave comments if you have problems.

Author: Jaber Al Nahian

Jaber is a Programmer and Tech Enthusiast Geek from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is the founder and Chief-Editor of TechGainer. While he is away from his keyboard, either he's fishing or messing with wildlife. In case, you can contact him at rijans[at]techgainer[dot]com.

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