If you do not want to show recently added or opened files and apps, you can hide this list or section in the Start Menu on Windows 11. You can also disable the Recommended section in the Start Menu using Windows Settings.
The Start Menu of Windows 11 has a Recommended section, which displays recently added or opened files and apps. It is more like a list that appears when you right-click on an app on the Taskbar. The same appears in the Start Menu that you can use to find all the recently opened files and apps within moments.
Sometimes, you might not like showing others your recently opened files. In such situations, you could use this tutorial to disable this list in the Start Menu.
How to hide Recently added apps in Start Menu of Windows 11
To show or hide the Recently added apps list in Start Menu on Windows 11, follow these steps:
- Press Win+I to open the Windows Settings.
- Go to the Personalization setting.
- Click on the Start option.
- Toggle the Show recently added apps button.
- Toggle the Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer button.
To know more about these aforementioned steps in detail, continue reading.
At first, you need to open Windows Settings. Although there are several ways to do that, you can press the Win+I keyboard shortcut. Next, switch to the Personalization tab and click on the Start option visible on the right side.
Here you can find two options – Show recently added apps and Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer.
You need to toggle both buttons one after one.
Once done, you can find a message saying To show your recent files and new apps, turn them on in Start settings.
For your information, you can turn on or off the Show recently added apps setting using the Local Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor as well. However, to turn off the other setting, you must open the Windows Settings panel.
To disable the Show recently added apps setting using Group Policy, you need to open the Local Group Policy Editor first. For that, press Win+R, type gpedit.msc, and press the Enter button.
Next, navigate to this path:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar
Double-click on the Remove “Recently added” list from Start Menu setting and select the Enabled option.
Click the OK button to save the change.
To disable the Show recently added apps setting using Registry, open the Registry Editor on your computer. For that, press Win+R, type regedit, press the Enter button and click on the Yes option.
Next, navigate to this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
Right-click on Windows and select New > Key. Name it as Explorer. Next, right-click on Explorer and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name it as HideRecentlyAddedApps. Double-click on it and set the Value data as 1.
Click the OK button to save the change and restart your computer to get the change.
As mentioned earlier, you must disable the Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer setting from Windows Settings to completely disable the Recommended section in the Start Menu on Windows 11.
That’s all! I hope this guide helped.
TIP: This post will show you how to completely remove the Recommended section from Start menu in Windows 11.
How do I hide items from the Start menu?
The Start Menu on Windows 11 includes several sections. To hide different items from the Start Menu, you need to toggle various options. For instance, you can use this tutorial to hide the Recommended section. You can also right-click on a particular app or file and choose Unpin from Start or a similar option.
Read: How to delete Recent Files and Folders in Windows 11
How do I get rid of the new Windows Start menu?
It is possible to get rid of the new Windows 11 Start Menu using Registry Editor. You need to change the value of Start_ShowClassicMode REG_DWORD value. To learn more about getting back the classic Start Menu in Windows 11, you need to read this article.
