How to remove single entries from the most recently used list.
In Office for Mere Mortals we recently covered the basics of the most recently used (MRU) list in Office.
Removing individual entries
It is possible to an individual ‘recently used document’ but it’s not obvious and a far cry from a simple right-mouse click option you’re entitled to expect.
Office 2007
In Office 2007 programs the Recently Used file list is kept in the registry at
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft Office12.0WordFile MRU
Replace ‘Word’ with ‘Excel’, PowerPoint’ etc as appropriate.
Delete the entries you don’t want to see then restart the Office application. The file path and name is given after the mysterious string at the beginning (widen the column width if necessary).
Don’t worry about the ‘Item’ numbering in the registry, it seems that Office 2007 will renumber the registry list automatically.
There is a small program available to save you digging into RegEdit. Check out Word 2007 MRU Menu -we have not tested nor verified this program.
Word 2003 and before
You can dig into the registry, if you must, but there is a much simpler way to remove individual entries from a Word 2003 MRU list. It’s not obvious and barely documented – thanks to RP and AC for info.
The shortcut Alt + Ctrl + – (the hyphen key on the top row of the main keyboard) activates the command ToolsCustomiseRemoveMenuShortcut which I know was just on the tip of your tongue
Press the shortcut and the mouse point will change to a thick horizontal bar like this:
Move the mouse pointer to the MRU item you want to delete and click on it – presto! it’s gone.
If you change your mind just press Escape and the mouse pointer will return to normal.
Be careful, this shortcut doesn’t just delete an MRU entry, it can delete ANY menu item. If you accidently remove a standard menu item go to Tools | Customise | Commands, find the removed menu item and drag it back onto the menu again.
Office Watch reader Richard P notes: “I wonder how often this key combination is pressed by mistake while trying to insert an Em Dash, which is the very similar combination Alt + Ctrl + – (minus sign from the number pad), causing havoc anyway?)”
This shortcut only works in Word – not Excel or PowerPoint.
Disabling the MRU list
You, or more likely the IT department in an organization, can disable the MRU list in both Windows and Office from the one setting.
It is in the registry at:
HKey_Current_UserSoftwareMicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer
If there’s a DWORD value called NoRecentDocsHistory with a value of 1 then the MRU lists in both Explorer and Office applications are disabled. A setting explicitly for Windows Explorer also impacts Office – intuitive eh?
In addition, the ‘Recently used file list’ option in Office programs is grayed out – like this in Excel 2003:
Still grayed out?
What if you’re a single user with no enforced policies but still have a grayed out MRU option?
Chances are you’ve used the free Windows tool ‘TweakUI’ at some stage and unchecked the option Add new documents to Documents on Start Menu– despite the name, the setting goes beyond just the Windows Start Menu and impacts the MRU list in Office programs as well.
The solution is to either run TweakUI again and check the option or go into the registry and edit the registry key mentioned above ( ie change HKey_Current_UserSoftwareMicrosoft WindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer NoRecentDocsHistory to 0 (zero).
Either way you’ll have to restart your Office program/s for the change to show up.
