Clearing History Lists

Clearing History Lists

So that you can quickly open documents and programs that you use frequently, Windows keeps history lists. These are MRU or “most recently used” lists. Table 4-7 shows you where in the registry the operating system stores these lists. Clear these lists by removing the keys associated with them. After removing the RecentDocs key, make sure to delete the contents of %UserProfile%\Recent, too.

The history list in Windows Search Assistant deserves a bit more attention. The key ACMru contains a variety of subkeys associated with the types of things for which you've searched. For example, if you search for files and folders, you'll see the subkey 5603, which contains a list of the different search strings. If you search the Internet using Search Assistant, you'll see the subkey 5001. You can remove each subkey individually to clear a specific type of query's history list, or you can remove the key ACMru to clear all of Search Assistant's history lists. Table 4-7 contains a list of the subkeys that 've found in ACMru.

Table 4-7 History Lists

Location	Subkey
Internet Explorer's address bar	HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ TypedURLs
Run dialog box	HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\RunMRU
Documents menu	HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\RecentDocs
Common dialog boxes	HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ComDlg32\LastVisitedMRU
Search Assistant	HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Search Assistant\ACMru The following are subkeys within ACMru: 5001. Internet 5603. Files and folders 5604. Pictures, music, and video 5647. Printers, computers, and people
Notification Icons	HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\TrayNotfy\IconStreams HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\TrayNotfy\PastIconsStream