How to Clear Recently Opened Files, Programs from Start Menu in Windows 7

Sometimes you may wish to clear the Recent Items list if it gets too cluttered or outdated. Along with this document history, you may also want to clean up the Recently Opened Programs list from Start Menu. (By default Windows 7 does not show ‘Recent Items’ in Start Menu. You can enable ‘Recent Items’ from Start Menu’s options.)
You can clear all program and document history with these steps:
1. Right-click on Windows 7 Start Menu Orb and choose “Properties”.
2. In the following ‘Taskbar and Start Menu Properties’ window, select the “Start Menu” tab.

3. In the Privacy section, uncheck the option Store and display recently opened programs in the Start Menu to clear the list of recently opened programs from Start Menu’s left panel.
4. Similarly uncheck Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar to remove the Recent Items history.
5. Click OK. You are done.