The recently-opened files and folders will be shown up in Windows 11’s Start menu under the Recommended section. That is, when you click the Start menu, you will directly see them. Perhaps, you don’t want them to be displayed. If so, you can read this MiniTool post to see how to hide or remove recent files and folders in Windows 11’s Start menu.
The first Windows 11 Insider preview build 22000.51 has been released for a while. Many Windows Insiders have upgraded their system to Windows 11 to test and use the new features and improvements in it.
One big change in Windows 11 is the Start menu. Microsoft not only centralizes the Start menu but also simplifies the contents in it. You can’t directly see the apps’ list in the Start menu. But you can see the files and folders that you have opened recently under the Recommended section. This offers you quick access to those files and folders if you want to use them again. This is a useful change. But not all users like it. Perhaps, you don’t want others to see what you have opened recently. Fortunately, you can remove or hide recent files and folders in Windows 11’s Start menu if you’d like to do that.
In this post, we will show you a simple guide on how to hide or remove recent files and folders in Windows 11’s Start menu.
How to Hide Recent Files and Folders in Windows 11’s Start Menu?
1. Click Start and you can see the Settings icon in the Start menu. Click it to open it. You can also right-click Start and select Settings to open the Settings app.
2. In Settings, select Personalization from the left menu. There is an alternative way to open Personalization: you can right-click the desktop and select Personalise to open it.
3. Find Start under Personalization and click it to open it.
4. Find the Show recently opened items in Start, Jump lists, and File Explorer option and turn off the button next to it.
5. Close Settings.
After these steps, you can click Start and see the list of recent files and folders under the Recommended section is gone. You see it is simple to turn off recent files and folders in Windows 11.
How to Unhide Recent Files and Folders in Windows 11’s Start Menu?
If you want to revert the change to unhide recent files and folders in Windows 11’s Start menu, you can repeat the above steps from 1 to 3, but turn on the button next to Show recently opened items in Start, Jump lists, and File Explorer in step 4.
How to Remove Files and Folders from the Recommended Section in Windows 11?
You can also only remove some specific files and folders from the Recommended section in the Start menu. It is very easy to do this:
- Clcik Start to open the Start menu.
- Right-click the file you want to remove from the Recommended section and select Remove from list.
With just these two steps, the selected item will be removed from the Recommened section in the Start menu.
Tip: Recent Files and Folders in Windows 10
Windows 10 also shows you the files and folders you have recently opened. But you can’t see them after clicking Start. But when you click the app from the app list in Start, you can see the files that are opened using that app. On the other hand, you can also see your recent files and folders after you open File Explorer.
You are also allowed to hide recent files and folders in Windows 10. Here is a guide: Methods to Clear Recent Files & Disable Recent Items in Windows 10.
Bottom Line
How to hide recent files and folders in Windows 11’s Start menu? After reading this post, you should know the answer. Should you encounter other issues when using Windows 11, you can let us know in the comments.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Stella has been working in MiniTool Software as an English Editor for more than 7 years. Her articles mainly cover the fields of data recovery including storage media data recovery and phone data recovery, YouTube videos download, partition management, and video conversions.