Computing: Computer Basics

System and Security: Removing Recent Files in Windows 11 Start menu.

Having the most often used apps and the recently opened documents displayed in the Windows Start menu may be useful, as it allows to directly access them by just opening the Start menu and clicking the app that you want to run or the document that you want to open. On the other hand, if you are not the only one, who uses the computer, this is not really compatible with the concept of privacy. Also, some users may find annoying that Windows 11 displays a whole bunch of so called recommended apps, that in most cases probably don't interest you at all. This small help text shows, how to proceed to remove these items from your Windows 11 Start menu.

Open the Start menu and choose Settings. In the left pane of the Settings window, choose Personalization, then scroll down in the right pane and choose Start.

In the Start window, turn all "show" options off. Recently added apps: apps that you have recently installed; most used apps: the apps that you most frequently use; recently opened items: documents (files of all kinds) that you recently opened; recommendations: apps recommendations made by Windows 11 (i.e. by Microsoft). You should also choose to display more pins (cf. below).

The screenshot below shows the Start menu on my Windows 11, after the settings have been changed. As you can see, the Recommendations section has not been removed, just emptied (another example, how Microsoft tries to impose things to their users). It's in order to keep this section small and make the one for the pinned apps bigger, that I said above to choose to display more pins.

Note: Using the Folders item in the Start window of Personalization, you can add shortcuts to your personal folders (your Home folder, Documents, Pictures, etc) to the Start menu, so you can open them from here (instead of having to launch File Explorer).

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