How To Clear Word 2007 Recent Documents List
March 27th, 2007 by Matthew Jabs
After I wrote my last post I realized the picture on the post had my Word 2007 List of Recent Documents there for everyone to see! I had to get rid of that, create a new picture with a blank Recent Documents list, so I starting hunting through the Word 2007 options list to no avail! I began to research the topic on the net and found that there is no way to clear that list in the Word 2007 options! What are they thinking? Who knows.
To clear the Recent Documents list in your Word 2007:
- Open regedit (yes, you have to use the registry) by clicking START | RUN | and typing “regedit” then clicking “OK”
- In regedit, navigate to the following location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\File MRU
- Delete some or all of the entries to clear out what you need cleared out.
- Close regedit
That’s it, you’re done.
To disable Recent Documents history altogether:
- Go to Start -> Run -> type regedit and enter
- Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer
- Create a DWORD value with the key NoRecentDocsHistory and set the value to 1
That’s it, you’re done!
***Disclaimer: Important This article contains information about how to modify the registry. Make sure to back up the registry before you modify it. Make sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 256986 - Description of the Microsoft Windows registry
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Posted in: Do-It-Yourself, Education, How To, Microsoft, Technology, Windows, diy, howto | 8,853 views |
The 1st one really works. Thanks a lot.
Wow way to thwart MS!
Thank you….thank you….
Though it was a nice tweak but you may find it in the MS Word 2007 Options list; here is the step by step guide to do so:
1- Click “Office Button” at the left top;
2- Click “Word Options”;
3- Click “Advanced” tab;
4- Scroll down to “Display” portion;
5- Set the value for “Show this number of Recent Documents” to “0″ (ZERO).
That’s it.
3 steps or 5, I guess one is just as easy as the other.
Although I haven’t tried Fateh’s method yet, I thank him for the input.
What on earth were microsoft thinking!! Clearing the recently used file list is such a useful feature of any program!!! Craziness!!
thanks for sharing the knowledge!
Graham.
it doesnt work fully.
if you go to open and check under the tacb “recent documents everything still is there
I think it would be helpful for me not to take off the history. I will find it harder to figure out the last docu I have done once i forget it.But i like learning new things like this.
“3 steps or 5, I guess one is just as easy as the other”.
Not really, one is advocating pointless editing of the registry to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Microsoft HAVE included the option as Fateh has pointed out.
Sorry, PSB, you are wrong. The original topic was HOW TO CLEAR THE RECENTLY USED DOCUMENTS LIST, not “how to prevent new documents from being added to the list.” These are two different solutions for two different issues.
Jack…
Intersting post!…
Wow great site! Some really helpful information there.
I’m sorry for little off-topic, but I want to ask you about design of this site.
Did you make this template yourself or got from any templates website?
Looks pretty cool for me. Wonderful well this reading.
IF you want to clear you recent documents then go word options and click on 0 displays and it clear’s it for you
Fateh’s option worked great!!! All Gone!!! Thanks!!!
Candace
Thanks alot, worked perfectly.
“Not really, one is advocating pointless editing of the registry to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Microsoft HAVE included the option as Fateh has pointed out.”
What do you mean ‘pointless’? Clearly it has a point, and that point is to solve the issue at hand.
And anyway, more power to the home computer user who’s not terrified to step aside from the highly polished tickboxes and options windows, and get into the guts of their computer.
The more exposure a user gets to actually configuring their computer, the more competent they’ll be to follow similar instructions for stubborn virus removals and so on. It might put me out of a job if they all take it up, but I’m happy to have informed customers.