General Add or Remove Recent Files in File Explorer Home in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove showing Recent files in File Explorer Home for your account in Windows 11.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22593, Quick access in File Explorer (Win+E) is now called Home. The name Quick access has been repurposed for the pinned/frequent Folders section, and Pinned files is now called Favorites to align with Office and OneDrive. Recent and pinned files (Favorites) displayed in Home are now searchable using the search box in File Explorer even if they are not local files, so you can find Office files recently shared with you.

Home in the navigation pane is the default homepage of File Explorer (Win+E) that allows you to quickly access and view your pinned/frequent folders (Quick access), Favorites (pinned files), and Recent files from one location.

File Explorer provides you with quick access to files that have been shared with you. If you are signed into Windows with your Microsoft account, you will be able to view files that have been shared with your account, such as email, Teams chat, etc. If you are a commercial customer who is signed-in with your Microsoft Entra ID account, you will additionally be able to view files that they have shared with others. You can access this feature by launching File Explorer Home and clicking on the ‘Shared’ tab item. You will also be able to view a broader set of file types in their Recent, Favorites, and Shared sections on the homepage. For example, if you’ve recently opened/edited files in Designer, Loop, Power BI, Forms, etc. these files will now be available in your Recent list.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.7019 (24H2) and build 26200.7019 (25H2), File Explorer Home now offers on-hover actions for faster file management. Hovering over a file with your mouse in File Explorer Home will display commands like Open file location and Ask Copilot about this file. You will be able to try out the Copilot integration and attach files easily. This experience currently only works if you’re signed in with a Microsoft account. Work or school account (Entra ID) support is coming in a future flight. This change is not yet rolling out to Windows Insiders in the EEA (European Economic Area).

Starting with Windows 11 build 26220.7523 (Dev and Beta), for Windows Insiders signed in with a Microsoft account (consumer cloud), File Explorer will now begin showing people icons under the “Activity” column on File Explorer Home and in areas like Recommended, Favorites, and Recent. When you hover or click on a people icon, File Explorer will display the new Windows People Card (WPC), giving you lightweight context about who recently interacted with the file and providing quick actions like starting a chat or a call through your preferred communication apps. This brings the people context experience—previously available only for work and school (Entra ID) files via the Live Persona Card (LPC)—to consumer cloud files as well, enabling a more consistent and intuitive collaboration experience across File Explorer. This is an update to the originally released feature which was previously documented in the Dev and Beta channels August 2025.

If you turn off Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer, it will also remove Recent from File Explorer Home.

EXAMPLE: Recent files in File Explorer Home







1 Open Home in File Explorer (Win+E). (see screenshot below)

2 Click/tap on the Recent tab.

3 Select one or more files you want to remove from Recent.

4 Right click on the selected file(s), and click/tap on Remove from list.

Removing file(s) from Recent in File Explorer Home will not delete the file(s). It only removes them from your recent history.

When you remove Recent from File Explorer Home, it will clear your recent files history.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22635.3930 (Beta), build 26120.1843 (Dev) and build 27783.1000 (Canary), this will only leave the Recent tab empty instead when set to remove.

1 Open Folder Options.

2 Click/tap on the General tab. (see screenshot below)

3 Under Privacy, check (add - default) or uncheck (remove) Show recently used files for what you want.

4 Click/tap on OK.

When you remove Recent from File Explorer Home, it will clear your recent files history.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22635.3930 (Beta), build 26120.1843 (Dev) and build 27783.1000 (Canary), this will only leave the Recent tab empty instead when set to remove.

1 Do step 2 (add) or step 3 (remove) below for what you would like to do.

This is the default setting.

(Contents of REG file for reference)





(Contents of REG file for reference)

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 If Home in File Explorer is currently open, then refresh (F5) or close and open the window to apply.

8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink