Disable Microsoft Office 2000 Recent Documents Completely

[berserker]

To completely prevent Office 2000 programs from creating recent document links, use the Microsoft NUL device as the target. Requires editing the registry. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUL: for a simple explanation of the nul device)



Office creates the recent doc links in the "C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent" directory.

To prevent this behavior change the destination directory to NUL in the registry. Then the "Recent" folder and all its recent document links can be deleted and will not be recreated.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\General

Navigate to the above key using a registry editor, and change the data in the RecentFiles value to NUL (in my install the original value was "recent")


----- OR -------


save the following 3 lines to a file (copy and paste into a text file), right click on the saved file, and select "merge" to install:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\General]
"RecentFiles"="NUL"

Notes:

• Has only been tested with an Office 2000 install. MAY also work with Office 2003 (change the 9.0 to 11.0 in above registry references)
• If the RecentFiles value is made empty (not changed to NUL), Offfice dumps recent documents links in the office directory
• If the RecentFiles value is deleted, Office re-creates and uses the default "recent" directory again

[macropod]

Hi berserker,

Unecessarily editing the Registry isn't a wise thing to do and I'm not sure what the value of this is, given that you can set the recent-document count to 0 for any version of any Office program. And yes, you'd need to change the path reference for other Office versions.

[berserker]

Originally Posted by macropod

Hi berserker,

Unecessarily editing the Registry isn't a wise thing to do and I'm not sure what the value of this is, given that you can set the recent-document count to 0 for any version of any Office program. And yes, you'd need to change the path reference for other Office versions.

Hello Macropod.

Setting the recent-document count to 0 (at least for Office 2000) just hides the recent files list from the user in the Office program interface. The office programs still create the files on disk when a document is opened.

I don't want the files being created at all - they are annoying and a security/privacy risk (if you're wondering, I don't use the "cloud" either.)

(I shouldn't have to run cleanup programs, scripts, or batches to correct what shouldn't be an issue in the first place. Also I use Everything - a real time disk indexer/searcher to find most of my documents prior to editing, and I see the .lnk recent document shortcut files appearing every time I open a document with an office program - it messes with my workflow as it bumps and confuses the searchlist in realtime.

The simple regedit fixes all the above.

[macropod]

Originally Posted by berserker

Setting the recent-document count to 0 (at least for Office 2000) just hides the recent files list from the user in the Office program interface. The office programs still create the files on disk when a document is opened.

All you're doing is killing of the recent document shortcuts. Those files don't contain any actual data. Word creates numerous other files (eg *.tmp, *.asd) regardless of what you do to the recent files setting.

I don't want the files being created at all - they are annoying and a security/privacy risk

As I said those files are just shortcuts with no data; what's the supposed security risk? Only that someone with access to your user account can see what files you've been working on. If there's any security issue here, it's that your user account isn't properly secured.

(I shouldn't have to run cleanup programs, scripts, or batches to correct what shouldn't be an issue in the first place. Also I use Everything - a real time disk indexer/searcher to find most of my documents prior to editing, and I see the .lnk recent document shortcut files appearing every time I open a document with an office program - it messes with my workflow as it bumps and confuses the searchlist in realtime.

If you need a 3rd-party program to find your documents prior to editing, that suggests you've got some file management issues to deal with.

The simple regedit fixes all the above.

All it does is delete a set of shortcuts. Big deal. If you don't set the MRU count to 0 in every Office program, anyone can still see what you've been working on. Of course, if you do, that helps explain why you then need a 3rd-party program to find your files. Seems like you've made a rod for your own back and you're now trying to find ways of making it less painful.