Open the Start menu, search for “gpedit.msc” and press Enter to open Group Policy Editor. This method is particularly useful for system administrators.ġ. For that, you need to modify a policy within the Group Policy Editor which is available to all Pro and Enterprise users. While the Settings app allows you to turn off recent items and frequent places on a per account basis, it has no option to disable them for all users.

Disable Recent Items Using Group Policy (All Users) If you want to enable them, just toggle the switch to the On position. On the right panel, toggle the switch under “Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar” to “Off.”Īs soon as you toggle the switch to the off position, the recent items and frequently places will be turned off immediately. In the Settings app, go to “Personalization” and then “Start” appearing on the left sidebar. To open the Settings app, click on the “Notifications” icon appearing at the bottom-right corner, and then click on the “All Settings” button.Ģ. It is faster and easy to configure from the Settings app there’s no need for registry hacks or policy changes.ġ. If you just want to disable recent items and frequent places for your user account, only then you can use the Settings app to do that. However, if you are not using this feature or don’t like showing your recent items and frequent places for privacy reasons, you can easily disable them.Īlso read: How to Delete Windows Explorer Address Bar History in Windows Disable Recent Items from Settings App In fact, Windows also shows you the recently opened files and frequently accessed places in the File Explorer’s File menu, too.

If you’ve ever right-clicked on an app icon on the taskbar or in the Start menu, you might’ve seen that Windows shows you a list of recent items that you’ve opened with that application.

Windows explorer frequent list