How to Enable/Disable Recently Opened Documents in Windows 7?

When you access documents, Windows  stores the shortcut of the history of opened documents for easy access in future. In Windows XP, this will appear as “My Recent Documents” in the start menu list. In Windows 7, the term “Recent Documents” is replaced as “Recent Items”. By default, Recent Items is hidden in Windows 7 as an measure to improve privacy of the user.


If you want to Enable “Recent Items” (Recent Documents) in Windows 7, follow these steps:
1. Right-click on Windows start button and choose “Properties”.
2. In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window, click on “Start Menu” tab.

3. In the Privacy section of the window, make sure “Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and taskbar” option is checked (By default this option remains “ON”).
4. Click “Customize” button.
5. In the Customize Start Menu window, scroll down to “Recent Items” in the list and turn it “ON”.

6. You can also set the number of Recent Items to display in the list (shown in above image).
7. Click “OK”
You are done. Now you can see the Recent Items in the Start Menu.