This may be an unusual problem, but I figured I’d post a how-to just in case. Anyways, ever since I installed Microsoft Office 2007 on my copy of Windows Vista Home Premium I have been unable to view recent documents. Normally, there’s a list of documents you’ve opened that shows up in a few places in Windows, including all the Office programs. For me, it has always been grayed out. Why? Apparently, my administrator (a.k.a. me) disallowed recent document history using group policy. Now, since I had done no such thing, it must have been something Windows did on its own. Or something. My copy of Windows is really screwed up.
Anyways, I know all about group policy. On any other version of Windows, you could simply go to your Start men, and type “gpedit.msc” (no quotes) in the Run box. Here’s a short tutorial for this on Windows XP and earlier. It should also work on Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. Unfortunately, you can’t use gpedit.msc to edit group policy on Vista Home Basic or Home Premium. Instead, you have to directly edit the registry. Don’t panic! I’ll guide you through. But always be sure to make a backup before editing the registry. This is easily done by clicking File>Export… in the Registry Editor and selecting “All” at the bottom of the screen that comes up. Do it now. Do it.
Go ahead and open up the Registry Editor by typing “regedit” (no quotes) in your Start menu search box and pressing enter. Find the following registry key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. (HKCU stands for HKEY_CURRENT_USER.) Double-click on the value inside the key labeled “NoRecentDocsHistory”. Change the 1 to 0. If it’s already 0, you don’t even need this tutorial and have wasted five minutes of your life. Way to go.
Anyways, now that you’ve edited this value, you should be able to view recent documents in Office programs and Windows itself. At the very least, you can actually edit the recent documents options in Windows and Office. Hopefully this will be helpful to someone. Maybe I just have strange computer problems that never show up for anyone else… And if I was too technical or confusing in this guide, feel free to leave me a comment.
Finally, if you’re interested in editing more group policy stuff in Vista Home Basic or Home Premium, I suggest downloading this Excel spreadsheet from Microsoft, which lists all the group policy settings and their corresponding registry keys. Very useful, especially without gpedit.msc (which is basically an easier to use interface for these particular registry keys). Or you could spring for Vista Ultimate.
Hi Cody,
I have a similar issue where I found that Recent Documents wwa always “empty” in the START MENU (Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit). I have searched the web to find a solution but unfortunately my registry setting HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies contains nothing, no EXPLORER details. I tried unticking the “store recent documents” setting and rebooting (always worth a shot), then reapplying the tick, which seemed to solve this for a while. Later on however after going back to my machine I found that Recent Documents is now empty again! Is there a time limit, maybe for documents to be held in Recent Docs?
Regards,
JK.
That’s strange that there’s nothing in that registry key. There is a setting that’s supposed to be in the registry that clears the recent docs every time you restart, but I’ve never heard of them going away during the same session.
The safest option would probably be a reinstall of Windows, though I suppose you could manually put in the Explorer key information if you’re not afraid to mess around in the registry. That’s quite the strange problem you’ve got. Sorry I couldn’t help more.
Thank you Cody for the resolution to this problem, you are the only one I discovered who addresses this matter.
Your instructions worked like a charm. You are one raving genius to which I am grateful.
I have tired every thing but the list of recent programs still does not populate in start menu. Just a huge blank spot.
As far as your solution is concerned, recent programs and recent files are 2 different thing correct? In XP every program you use so often is listed on the side for easy access. Thats what I am trying to get at.
Dean: Yes, the recent programs and recent files lists are separate. I don’t know what alternative solutions there are. I’m afraid I don’t know too much about the inner workings of the Windows registry.
Looks like your suggestion worked, at least I was able to find the entry and change the 1 to 0. Thanks for the help. Microsoft’s online help is the pits!
i have the same problem as JK, policies is empty, can someone please export on a file what they have in that registry so i can import it and move the settings
regards