How to Turn Off Recent Items and Frequent Places in Windows 10

All over Windows, it is easy to see menus containing the most recently used items concerning a specific application. It could be a document you opened recently, or even a video you have watched very lately. Frequent Places works in the same like manner, which shows you vital folders in your account (Desktop, Pictures, Music, Downloads, Documents, and so on), in addition to folders you could have pinned or even lately accessed.

Here, JustNaira takes you through the process of turning off frequent places as well as recent items in Windows 10.

Location of Recent Items and Frequent Places
Your recent items including frequent places are equally stored in the following folder locations:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

This is the look of what you will see on the Start menu:

Here is the look it will assume on the taskbar’s jump lists:

You will equally come across File Explorer, in the Quick Access pane:

…and then in the File menu:

The operation of Recent Items in Windows

Windows will show you in File Explorer, your most lately opened items. In jump lists on the taskbar and Start menu, however, Recent Items will show you the items most recently used for that very application.
Microsoft Word displays recent documents; Internet Explorer will show you most recent websites; and then Microsoft Paint will show pictures which had been recently opened in this instance. By the standard of default, Windows will show you the most recent used items (items) according to the file name.

Also, you could “pin” files and folders to the Recent Items list, so that access to them is pretty quick. Going in the rhythm of the Microsoft knowledgebase, the Recent Items algorithm brings forth the following behavior:

A new item is always added at the top of the Recent items list.

Surely, over time, the Items will move down in the list. The moment the list is full for which it is full when it number to 10 by default; the older items will drop lower step by step to the bottom of the list with the addition of new items to the top of the list.

Should an item appear somewhere in the list but it is consequently accessed again, this item will now move back; going top of the list.

An item will still travel down the list, even if it is pinned, the exception here is that it will not eventually vanish from the list. Then when the number of pinned items reaches its full number of items, until an item is unpinned, no new items will get added to the list.

How to Turn Off Recent Items in Windows 10

The way to go about turning off Recent Items with the least stress is via Windows 10’s Settings app. Simply Open “Settings” and then click on the Personalization icon.

Click on “Start” on the left side. Turn off “Show recently added apps” from the right side and then next is “Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar”.

When you turn off recent items and frequent places, the effect of this is that it will perform the clearing of all recent items from File Explorer and jump lists. Items which you have pinned, yet, will maintain their place till the event of you unpinning them manually.

Alternative: Turn Off Recent Items Through Group Policy Editor

In the condition where you’re managing a computer with multiple users, and making use of Windows 10 Pro, there is the option of tweaking this setting via Group Policy. Press “Win + R” to open the Run box and type “gpedit.msc”. Below “User Configuration > Administrative Templates”, click “Start Menu and Taskbar”.

Now In the right pane, double click on “Do not keep history of recently opened documents” to then open the Properties box. If you want to disable Recent Items, select “Enabled” and click “Apply.” In the same manner, double click “Remove Recent Items menu from Start Menu” so as to disable recent item menu.
And so we come to the end of the lecture, now you can maintain your privacy in your computer by turning off your recent places.