Clear Your File Explorer Recent Files History in Windows 10

When you open Quick Access in Windows 10 File Explorer, you may notice that you can see all of your recently visited files and folders in a list. While it’s a quite handy but there are times when they lead to a pretty nasty privacy breach, for example, you visited a personal folder. Some other user also has access to your PC then he or she might be able to access your personal files or folders based on your recent history using the quick access in File Explorer.

Your recent items and frequent places are stored in the following location:

%APPDATA%MicrosoftWindowsRecent Items
%APPDATA%MicrosoftWindowsRecentAutomaticDestinations
%APPDATA%MicrosoftWindowsRecentCustomDestinations

Now you have an option to clear your history which will clear the list of your recently visited files and folders from quick access menu. While you also can turn off recent items and frequent places altogether, but if you like having your history, you need to clear your recent files and folders history every once in a while. Anyway, without wasting any time, let’s see How to Clear Your File Explorer Recent Files History in Windows 10 with the help of the below-listed tutorial.

Clear Your File Explorer Recent Files History in Windows 10

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: Reset and Clear Recent Items & Frequent Places in File Explorer Options

Note: Clearing File Explorer history also clear all any locations you have pinned to jump lists and pinned to quick access, deletes the address bar history of File Explorer etc.

1. Open File Explorer Options using any of the method listed here.

2. Make sure you are in the General tab, then click on Clear under Privacy.

3. That’s it you have Clear Your File Explorer Recent Files History in Windows 10.

4. Once you clear the history, recent files will disappear until you open a file or visit a folder in File Explorer.

Method 2: Clear Your File Explorer Recent Files History in Windows 10 Settings

1. Press Windows Key + I to open Settings then click on Personalization icon.

2. From the left-hand menu, click on Start.

3. Next, turn off or disable the toggle under “Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar“.

Method 3: Clear individual items from recent files in Quick Access

1. Press Windows Key + E to open Quick Access in File Explorer.

2. Right-click on the recent file or folder for which you want to clear the history and select “Remove from Quick access“.

3. This would successfully remove that particular entry from the Quick Access.

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That’s it, you successfully learned How to Clear Your File Explorer Recent Files History in Windows 10 but if you still have any questions regarding this tutorial then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.