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Introduction

The My Recent Documents folder on the Windows XP Start menu displays a list of files and documents that you most recently used.

Removing the Recent Documents link from XP Start Menu

To remove the My Recent Documents folder from XP Start Menu, try this:

• Right-click Start, and then click Properties
• Click Customize
• Click the Advanced tab
• Under Recent documents, uncheck List my most recently opened documents
• Click OK, and then OK.

Equivalent registry value

• Open Registry Editor and navigate to:
  
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
  
  
• Backup the key to a file. See Backing up.. article
• Set the value of Start_ShowRecentDocs accordingly.
  
  Value of 0 - List my most recently opened documents is disabled
  Value of 2 - List my most recently opened documents is enabled
  

Automate the above with REG file

Download this REG file sets Start_ShowRecentDocs registry value to 0
Undo REG file which sets Start_ShowRecentDocs registry value to 2 (default)

Different setting for the Windows Classic Start Menu

For the Classic Start Menu, set NoRecentDocsMenu to 1 in this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

NoRecentDocsMenu value may not exist by default. If so, create a new value of type REG_DWORD and set it's data to 1