How to delete recent files in Windows 8 if those files take too many computer resources? You’ll learn to delete recent files and how to disable them in File Explorer in Windows.
After you use a program, new data files will emerge for running the program smoothly and some of them will leave tracks in File Explorer. These recent files will store on your C drive and they will accumulate on the disk and occupy some free space. Thus, many users wish to delete them and if possible, disable the recent files showing in File Explorer.
Then, how can you safely clear recent files in Windows 11/10/8? If you’re also looking for detailed methods, this guide will help you to remove recent files and offer you some practical ideas on how to clear junk files to improve PC performance.
First, we’ll show you how to delete recent files.
Step 1. Click “Windows” + “R” to open the Run window, and type or copy and paste the following content and click “OK”: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
Step 2. In the new window, you can select all files and delete them.
Then the recent files will be removed. You can regularly clean these files in this way.
If you’re sharing your PC with other people, then you might wish to hide recently opened files in File Explorer. The operation is not difficult.
Step 1. Type “Edit group policy” and open it.
Step 2. On the left of the window, please locate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar.
Step 3. In the right part, find “Do not keep history of recent opened documents” and double-click it to open its settings window.
Step 4. In the new window, click “Enable”. And save the changes. Then the recent files won’t show in the File Explorer Quick Access.
Recent files are quite a small part of the junk files in your computer system. Usually, to ensure your system and programs run smoothly, the system will create numerous temporary data information and various small files. They are important when the system executes the tasks, however, after that, most of them will be obsolete and stay on the disk. What’s worse, they often are stored on the C drive. If you just leave them, they will also devour large available space on your disk. And if you’re using an HDD as the system disk, the PC speed will be greatly affected.
So, to keep your system and disk in a nice status, we suggest you regularly clear junk files. Of course, you can use Windows built-in tools like Disk Cleanup and Storage Sense to do some basic cleaning, but if you want to thoroughly clean all useless files, we recommend you try AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup.
It is a free disk and partition manager for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP systems to efficiently and easily manage computers. It can thoroughly scan your computer system and disks to filter all outdated files and clean them with only one click.
Free Up Disk Space To Keep Your PC Running Smoothly and Efficiently
Step 1. Initiate Clean Junk Files. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Clean Junk Files" tab.
Step 2. Start scan junk files. Click the "Scan Now" button to start the process of scanning junk files.
Step 3. After the scan process is finished. All system junk files (including recycle bin files, temporary files, log files, invalid shortcuts, and so on) and registry junk files (including DLL registry, system registry, and program registry) will be displayed.
Step 4. You can also click the button behind to view the junk files details.
Step 5. And, you can click the button behind to locate the file.
Step 6. Select junk files to start cleanup. By default, the program will select some junk files to clean up, for example, temporary files, log files, and so on. You can also manually check to select more or uncheck to deselect fewer listed junk files. Or, click "Select All" to select all junk files to clean up if you need to clean up all.
After selecting junk files that are not needed anymore, you can click the "Clean Now"button to start the cleanup.
Step 7. Cleanup completed. The process of the cleanup might take time, and the selected files will be cleaned up. After the process is finished, you will get a cleanup completed window displaying how many files you have cleaned and not yet cleaned.
Some users may find that, no matter how many times they clean, the disk is still in the dilemma of space insufficiency. The factors of this predicament are multifarious. If you didn’t install large programs on your C drive, then one of the possible reasons is that there are large files hidden in them.
These files may emerge during the program running process. Or they may be once only used for a system task. Windows won’t clear them via Disk Cleanup because they might be recognizable for the system.
Thus, in this case, you can try advanced file cleanup.
Step 1. Initiate Delete Large Files. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant for Cleanup. Click the "Delete Large Files" tab.
Step 2. Select a path to scan large files. You can either click "Scan System Drive" to start the scan of your system C: drive. Or, click "Custom Scan" to manually select paths to be scanned. (Here, we take the "Custom Scan" as an example.)
Step 3. After clicking "Custom Scan", all local and external drives on your PC and the common Desktop, Documents, and Downloads paths will be displayed. You can manually select paths to be scanned. Once necessary paths are added, you can click the "Scan Now" button to start the scan process.
Step 4. The scan process might take time. After the scan is complete, all large files found will be listed.
Step 5. You can also check the large files and click the button behind to locate them.
Step 6. Select large files to start deletion. Tick the files you want to delete, and then click the "Clean Now" button to start the deletion.
Step 7. Delete successfully. The deletion might take time. After the process is finished, the selected files will be deleted, and you will get a cleaning completed window displaying how much data you deleted in total.
This is how to delete recent files in Windows 8/10/11. If you feel your PC starts to slow down, you can try to clean the junk files and free up more available space on the system partition.
