Windows 10 Tip: How To Clean Up File Explorer Recent History

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File Explorer is the new Windows Explorer in Windows 10, the default application to manage files. When you browse through the folders, opening files, the File Explorer saves these footprints as the recent file history. This article is to show you how to clean up this saved recent history in Windows 10.

How many recent file locations in Windows 10?

File Explorer saves the recent file history not in only one place, but in a few locations. Let’s knowing walk through them so we know how many of them to deal with.

Quick Access

When you are in Quick Access, there are un-pinned folders listed under Quick Access on the left, and a list of recent files, 20 of them by default, listed on the right under frequent folders section.

File Explorer Quick Access - Windows 10 Tip: How To Clean Up File Explorer Recent History

Frequent places

Click File in File Explorer and you will see a list of frequently accessed places on the right pane, 10 of them by default.

File Explorer File Frequent places - Windows 10 Tip: How To Clean Up File Explorer Recent History

The Jump List

Right-click the File Explorer icon on the taskbar and you will see the Frequent list shown in the what’s called Jump List.

File Exploer Jump List - Windows 10 Tip: How To Clean Up File Explorer Recent History

How to clean up the recent history

Now let’s get down to the business, clean up the recent history places mentioned above.

The quick and easiest way is to open Folder Options by clicking File in File Explorer and choosing Options.

File Explorer File and Option - Windows 10 Tip: How To Clean Up File Explorer Recent History

And click the Clear button to clean up both recently used files and frequently used folders in Quick access.

Folder Options Clear - Windows 10 Tip: How To Clean Up File Explorer Recent History

Alternatively, you can also clean up the list by deleting the content in the following folders.

%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations\

and delete a registry key called TypedPaths under the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Registry delete typedpaths - Windows 10 Tip: How To Clean Up File Explorer Recent History

That’s about it. Hope it helps.

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