The recent items list on the start menu is a mess. It’s difficult to find what you’re looking for, and it’s hard to know which app you want to open. This problem can be fixed by adding a Recent Files and Apps section to the start menu. This section would list all of the apps that you’ve recently opened, as well as any files that you’ve recently accessed. This would make it easier to find what you’re looking for, and it would make opening apps much easier.

Windows keeps track of documents you have recently opened in a Recent Items list on the Start menu. The Run dialog box also stores a most recently used (MRU) list of commands you have run.

You may have encountered a strange problem where the Recent Items list on the Start menu and the MRU list in the Run dialog box are completely empty when you restart your computer or log off and on again. It’s actually a common problem that can happen when you use third-party software to tweak your system. An entry may get added into the Windows Registry to clear the Recent Items list and Run dialog’s MRU list when you log off Windows.

This article shows you how to change this setting using the Local Group Policy Editor and using the Windows Registry.

NOTE: The Local Group Policy Editor is not available in the Home and Starter editions of Windows 7.

Using the Local Group Policy Editor

To open the Local Group Policy Editor, open the Start menu and enter “gpedit.msc” in the Search box. Press enter then “gpedit.msc” displays in the search results list or click on the link.

In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to the following item.

Click on Start Menu and Taskbar to display its settings in the right pane.

In the right pane, double-click on the Clear history of recently opened documents on exit setting.

On the dialog box that displays for the setting, select the Disabled option or the Not Configured option.

Click OK to accept your change and close the dialog box.

The State for the setting displays as Disabled (or Not configured).

Select Exit from the File menu to close the Local Group Policy Editor.

Using the Registry Editor

If you are using Windows 7 Home or Starter Edition, or if you prefer using the registry, follow the steps below to change the setting in the registry that will stop clearing the recent items list on the Start menu and MRU list on the Run dialog box when you log off.

NOTE: We recommend before changing the registry, be sure you back it up. We also recommend creating a restore point you can use to restore your system if something goes wrong.

To open the Registry Editor, open the Start menu and enter “regedit.exe” in the Search box. Press enter then “regedit.exe” displays in the search results list or click on the link.

If the User Account Control dialog box displays, click Yes to continue.

NOTE: You may not see this dialog box, depending on your User Account Control settings.

Navigate to each of the following items in the tree on the left side of the Registry Editor window.

For each item above, look for a DWORD value called ClearRecentDocsOnExit in the right pane. If this setting is on, its value would be set to 1. To turn off the setting, double-click the setting name.

On the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, change the number in the Value data edit box to 0 and click OK.

The value in the Data column for the ClearRecentDocsOnExit item displays as 0.

To turn off this setting, you can also completely delete the ClearRecentDocsOnExit key. To do this, right-click on the key name and select Delete from the popup menu.

The Confirm Value Delete dialog box displays to make sure you want to delete the value. If you are sure you are deleting the ClearRecentDocsOnExit key, and not different key, click Yes.

NOTE: Be sure of what you are changing and deleting in the registry. If you change or delete a wrong item, you could cause your system not to function properly.

Select Exit from the File menu to close the Registry Editor.

When you start opening files in various programs, if you don’t see the files in the Recent Items list on the Start menu, you may have to change a couple of settings. To do this, right-click on the Start orb and select Properties from the popup menu.

The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box displays with the Start Menu tab active.

If you only want to display recently opened items, such as documents, turn on the Store and display recently opened items in the Start menu and the taskbar check box in the Privacy box.

If you want to display a list of recently opened programs in the bottom half of the Start menu, check the Store and display recently opened programs in the Start menu check box. This option will also display a list of recently opened items in the jumplist for each program icon on the taskbar.

Use the same procedure to turn this setting back on if you want to start clearing the recent items list when you log off or restart your computer. Enable the setting in the Local Group Policy Editor, or change the key in the registry to have a value of 1 instead of 0.