I used to know how to do this....

Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS, which
stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to clear that
thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames entirely, since I
dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of usage.
I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted stuff, and other
stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

wrote:

Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS,
which stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to
clear that thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames
entirely, since I dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of
usage. I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted
stuff, and other stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I
will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

James,

Complete instructions on how to clear and turn off MRU (Most Recently

Used) documents can be found he


https://www.microsoft.com/resources/...xp/all/proddoc
s/en-us/win_start_showmru_howto.mspx?mfr=true

HTH

JT

--

On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 01:30:31 +0000 (UTC), "JT"
wrote:

wrote:

Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS,
which stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to
clear that thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames
entirely, since I dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of
usage. I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted
stuff, and other stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I
will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

James,

Complete instructions on how to clear and turn off MRU (Most Recently

Used) documents can be found he


https://www.microsoft.com/resources/...xp/all/proddoc
s/en-us/win_start_showmru_howto.mspx?mfr=true

HTH

JT

Clicking on that link gave me a message saying "The service is
unavailable".

(Yes, I did paste the FULL link).

On 27/11/2017 01:20, wrote:
Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS, which
stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to clear that
thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames entirely, since I
dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of usage.
I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted stuff, and other
stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....


To clear the My Recent Documents list, follow these steps:

1) Right-click Start, and then click Properties. Or, if the Start
menu is already displayed, right-click an empty area of the Start menu,
and then click Properties.
2) Click Customize.
3) Click the Advanced tab.
4) Under Recent documents, click Clear List, click OK, and then click
OK. Your most recently used documents are removed from the My Recent
Documents folder. Note that this action does not delete the documents
from your hard disk.

Google is the best place to search for these silly things!!!

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/307875/how-to-display--use--and-clear-my-recent-documents-on-the-start-menu-i




--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

wrote:

On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 01:30:31 +0000 (UTC), "JT"
wrote:

wrote:

Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS,
which stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to
clear that thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames
entirely, since I dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track
usage, which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all
traces of usage. I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete
unwanted stuff, and other stuff, but this thing keeps filling up
with crap I will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

James,

Complete instructions on how to clear and turn off MRU (Most
Recently

Used) documents can be found he


https://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ows/xp/all/pro
ddoc s/en-us/win_start_showmru_howto.mspx?mfr=true

HTH

JT

Clicking on that link gave me a message saying "The service is
unavailable".

(Yes, I did paste the FULL link).

Looks like Good Guy gave you the answer. I'm not sure why the URL
didn't

work... it works on my PC. OH well, as long as you got the right answer!

JT


--

On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 02:27:40 +0000 (UTC), "JT"
wrote:

JT

Clicking on that link gave me a message saying "The service is
unavailable".

(Yes, I did paste the FULL link).

Looks like Good Guy gave you the answer. I'm not sure why the URL
didn't

work... it works on my PC. OH well, as long as you got the right answer!

JT


--

Yep, I was able to clear it.

I also found out why the URL would not work. It's because they use
HTTPS. Ever since they added the "S" nearly all those sites no longer
load for me, or load improperly. There is very little left that I can do
on the web now, with dialup, and it gets worse daily.

wrote:
On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 02:27:40 +0000 (UTC), "JT"
wrote:

JT
Clicking on that link gave me a message saying "The service is
unavailable".

(Yes, I did paste the FULL link).
Looks like Good Guy gave you the answer. I'm not sure why the URL
didn't

work... it works on my PC. OH well, as long as you got the right answer!

JT


--

Yep, I was able to clear it.

I also found out why the URL would not work. It's because they use
HTTPS. Ever since they added the "S" nearly all those sites no longer
load for me, or load improperly. There is very little left that I can do
on the web now, with dialup, and it gets worse daily.


You need to know a lot about taxonomy, to understand which
one(s) of these are a dud from the get-go (won't work on your
platform). And unfortunately, it would take me several hours,
to prepare to sort through this list. For example, we know
anything derived from Chrome, isn't going to run on x32 WinXP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...f_web_browsers

*******

Here's a lead for you. No guarantees. Their current release,
could well be their last release for Windows XP.

https://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/legacy

"SeaMonkey 2.49.x will be the last version supporting
Windows XP/Server 2003 and Vista/Server 2008.

The last version for Windows with support for older CPUs
not supporting the SSE2 instruction set was SeaMonkey 2.40.
"

If you're already using Seamonkey, you might want to look
over a number of their web pages, for warnings about
unfriendly things this release does.

https://www.seamonkey-project.org/

HTH,
Paul

On Sun, 26 Nov 2017 23:33:46 -0500, Paul wrote:


You need to know a lot about taxonomy, to understand which
one(s) of these are a dud from the get-go (won't work on your
platform). And unfortunately, it would take me several hours,
to prepare to sort through this list. For example, we know
anything derived from Chrome, isn't going to run on x32 WinXP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...f_web_browsers

*******

Here's a lead for you. No guarantees. Their current release,
could well be their last release for Windows XP.

https://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/legacy

"SeaMonkey 2.49.x will be the last version supporting
Windows XP/Server 2003 and Vista/Server 2008.

The last version for Windows with support for older CPUs
not supporting the SSE2 instruction set was SeaMonkey 2.40.
"

If you're already using Seamonkey, you might want to look
over a number of their web pages, for warnings about
unfriendly things this release does.

https://www.seamonkey-project.org/

HTH,
Paul

Yea, but I'm running Win98. If you recall, I have never been able to get
a usable connection with dialup, using any other OS. (XP or Win2000). On
98 I can stay connected for hours, but am stuck with Firefox 3.x, or an
old Seamonkey or K-meleon.

I used to dump those nasty webs into a program called "Off by one". and
pretty much just access the text and pics. That program wont load any
https sites.

I'm pretty much done with the web. I have newsgroups and email left that
still work...

The old seamonkey that works with Win98 is no better than FF. Sometimes
worse, and K-meleon dont work at all anymore.

That is why i asked if its possible to run an XP browser on an XP
computer, which is connected by a network to the Win98 machine...??
And run that browser across the network....

wrote:


That is why i asked if its possible to run an XP browser on an XP
computer, which is connected by a network to the Win98 machine...??
And run that browser across the network....

As long as the Win98 machine can be coaxed to do ICS,
the answer is yes.

ICS
Win98 WinXP

Phone --------dialup---- Comp#1 ----------- Comp#2
^ crossover ^
| cable 100BT |
| |
192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2
manually assigned if necessary
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1 ???

The crossover cable does this for the wiring. 100BT
uses four wires of eight wire cables. Or, you can use
an older four wire only Ethernet cable for 100BT.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ssover.svg.png

(More info, optional viewing material.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

The GbE NIC cards, have MDI/MDIX and they can swap wires to
make the electrical connections. That means you no longer
have to worry about the cable type, with those sorts of cards.
(No, *do not* go out and buy just any old GbE PCI card,
as the sucky RealTek chip will be on there!)

Equipping your two PCs with GbE cards, improves the
machine to machine file transfer rate (from 11MB/sec approx
to 112MB/sec). But in terms of web surfing, the 100BT
capable cards will work just fine for that. And all you have
to worry about, is using a crossover instead of a
straight-thru cable.

I think I have at least one crossover cable in the house
for experiments. On the Ethernet cables with plastic boots
over the ends, the crossover had red on one end and blue
on the other end. The two colors means it's "crossover".
There is no physical significance to the red and blue,
just that they're different colors implying the wires
are crossed. My straight-thru wires have blue hoods
on both ends.

I have a couple more crossover cables which are beige in
color, with no hint as to what they are. I would need
a multimeter to sort my cables, then place a PostIt note
on the odd-balls. If you have 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 6-6, that's
straight through. If you have the wiring pattern
in the PNG file above (the first link), then the cable
is a crossover type.

And ICS is loads of fun to set up, with all the cursing
and swearing. If you're not suffering hair loss,
you're not doing it right. Remember this is Windows 98.

If you think that's bad, you should try setting up a
Bluetooth PAN on Windows 10. I got like two packets
through it, before it completely died. Crappy networking
is kinda a manifest constant in the universe. Just like
viewing videos can "never be simple" :-)

And remember that the "ping" command is your friend.

ping 192.168.1.2

from machine 192.168.1.1...

The "ipconfig" command at the other end, can confirm
what address is assigned. The networking control panel
can be used on the second PC (WinXP one), if you want
192.168.1.2 .

Both ping and ipconfig, run in a Command Prompt.

Good luck,
Paul

On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 00:58:31 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:


That is why i asked if its possible to run an XP browser on an XP
computer, which is connected by a network to the Win98 machine...??
And run that browser across the network....

As long as the Win98 machine can be coaxed to do ICS,
the answer is yes.

ICS
Win98 WinXP

Phone --------dialup---- Comp#1 ----------- Comp#2
^ crossover ^
| cable 100BT |
| |
192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2
manually assigned if necessary
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1 ???

The crossover cable does this for the wiring. 100BT
uses four wires of eight wire cables. Or, you can use
an older four wire only Ethernet cable for 100BT.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ssover.svg.png

(More info, optional viewing material.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

The GbE NIC cards, have MDI/MDIX and they can swap wires to
make the electrical connections. That means you no longer
have to worry about the cable type, with those sorts of cards.
(No, *do not* go out and buy just any old GbE PCI card,
as the sucky RealTek chip will be on there!)

Equipping your two PCs with GbE cards, improves the
machine to machine file transfer rate (from 11MB/sec approx
to 112MB/sec). But in terms of web surfing, the 100BT
capable cards will work just fine for that. And all you have
to worry about, is using a crossover instead of a
straight-thru cable.

I think I have at least one crossover cable in the house
for experiments. On the Ethernet cables with plastic boots
over the ends, the crossover had red on one end and blue
on the other end. The two colors means it's "crossover".
There is no physical significance to the red and blue,
just that they're different colors implying the wires
are crossed. My straight-thru wires have blue hoods
on both ends.

I have a couple more crossover cables which are beige in
color, with no hint as to what they are. I would need
a multimeter to sort my cables, then place a PostIt note
on the odd-balls. If you have 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 6-6, that's
straight through. If you have the wiring pattern
in the PNG file above (the first link), then the cable
is a crossover type.

And ICS is loads of fun to set up, with all the cursing
and swearing. If you're not suffering hair loss,
you're not doing it right. Remember this is Windows 98.

If you think that's bad, you should try setting up a
Bluetooth PAN on Windows 10. I got like two packets
through it, before it completely died. Crappy networking
is kinda a manifest constant in the universe. Just like
viewing videos can "never be simple" :-)

And remember that the "ping" command is your friend.

ping 192.168.1.2

from machine 192.168.1.1...

The "ipconfig" command at the other end, can confirm
what address is assigned. The networking control panel
can be used on the second PC (WinXP one), if you want
192.168.1.2 .

Both ping and ipconfig, run in a Command Prompt.

Good luck,
Paul


That sounds like loads of fun

I probably have a cable like that. I have a whole box of network cables
that I once got. If not, I'm sure they are cheap enough on ebay. You
know about the card in the XP machine, the one you have me the driver
for. Even though I will likely put it in a different XP computer. I dont
think I have a card for the Win98 machine or not. I may have one in a
junked computer.

What does ICS mean?

I dont know if I want to tackle this or not, but it's something to
consider..... If I cant do something, I will soon have no web usage at
all, except to drive to town and use a WIFI.

Last week, I connected the laptop that I use for WIFI to a USB modem and
easily connected to my dialup, but within 10 min or less, I had the
spiral of death ****, and could not even load a google page.

But I wanted to try and see, since thats an entirtely different computer
and modem. I just have a lousy URL and that is not gonna change. I
wonder how long they will even have dialup in the future.....
After all, they want to sell their expensive satellite tv and internet,
which I could never afford.

wrote:
On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 00:58:31 -0500, Paul wrote:

wrote:

That is why i asked if its possible to run an XP browser on an XP
computer, which is connected by a network to the Win98 machine...??
And run that browser across the network....
As long as the Win98 machine can be coaxed to do ICS,
the answer is yes.

ICS
Win98 WinXP

Phone --------dialup---- Comp#1 ----------- Comp#2
^ crossover ^
| cable 100BT |
| |
192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2
manually assigned if necessary
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1 ???

The crossover cable does this for the wiring. 100BT
uses four wires of eight wire cables. Or, you can use
an older four wire only Ethernet cable for 100BT.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...sover.svg..png

(More info, optional viewing material.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

The GbE NIC cards, have MDI/MDIX and they can swap wires to
make the electrical connections. That means you no longer
have to worry about the cable type, with those sorts of cards.
(No, *do not* go out and buy just any old GbE PCI card,
as the sucky RealTek chip will be on there!)

Equipping your two PCs with GbE cards, improves the
machine to machine file transfer rate (from 11MB/sec approx
to 112MB/sec). But in terms of web surfing, the 100BT
capable cards will work just fine for that. And all you have
to worry about, is using a crossover instead of a
straight-thru cable.

I think I have at least one crossover cable in the house
for experiments. On the Ethernet cables with plastic boots
over the ends, the crossover had red on one end and blue
on the other end. The two colors means it's "crossover".
There is no physical significance to the red and blue,
just that they're different colors implying the wires
are crossed. My straight-thru wires have blue hoods
on both ends.

I have a couple more crossover cables which are beige in
color, with no hint as to what they are. I would need
a multimeter to sort my cables, then place a PostIt note
on the odd-balls. If you have 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 6-6, that's
straight through. If you have the wiring pattern
in the PNG file above (the first link), then the cable
is a crossover type.

And ICS is loads of fun to set up, with all the cursing
and swearing. If you're not suffering hair loss,
you're not doing it right. Remember this is Windows 98.

If you think that's bad, you should try setting up a
Bluetooth PAN on Windows 10. I got like two packets
through it, before it completely died. Crappy networking
is kinda a manifest constant in the universe. Just like
viewing videos can "never be simple" :-)

And remember that the "ping" command is your friend.

ping 192.168.1.2

from machine 192.168.1.1...

The "ipconfig" command at the other end, can confirm
what address is assigned. The networking control panel
can be used on the second PC (WinXP one), if you want
192.168.1.2 .

Both ping and ipconfig, run in a Command Prompt.

Good luck,
Paul


That sounds like loads of fun

I probably have a cable like that. I have a whole box of network cables
that I once got. If not, I'm sure they are cheap enough on ebay. You
know about the card in the XP machine, the one you have me the driver
for. Even though I will likely put it in a different XP computer. I dont
think I have a card for the Win98 machine or not. I may have one in a
junked computer.

What does ICS mean?

I dont know if I want to tackle this or not, but it's something to
consider..... If I cant do something, I will soon have no web usage at
all, except to drive to town and use a WIFI.

Last week, I connected the laptop that I use for WIFI to a USB modem and
easily connected to my dialup, but within 10 min or less, I had the
spiral of death ****, and could not even load a google page.

But I wanted to try and see, since thats an entirtely different computer
and modem. I just have a lousy URL and that is not gonna change. I
wonder how long they will even have dialup in the future.....
After all, they want to sell their expensive satellite tv and internet,
which I could never afford.


Typically used with two NICs, one on the "WAN" side, one on the "LAN" side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...ection_sharing

"ICS provides Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
and network address translation (NAT) services for the LAN computers.

The service is also not customizable in terms of which
addresses are used for the internal subnet."

And DHCP means the second PC (WinXP) can be left on Auto, and
it should get 192.168.0.2 as a result (check with ipconfig).
The machine with ICS can be 192.168.0.1, on the LAN side.

The second sentence implies there could be issues chaining
a dozen PCs in a row. I certainly haven't tested that part.
I only did ICS with two PCs as a test.

At some point, getting a router is cheaper. That is, if you
intend to feed four PCs off the Win98 machine. A router with
four ports for $40, provides LAN interfaces at $10 each,
and may work better than filling the Win98 with four
$10 NIC cards. Networking can be cheap enough sometimes,
that the cables cost more than the silicon.

Having a router with dialup on it, maybe a MikroTik
router could do that. They make routers that are more
like "computers" in a sense, than the usual "router
in a plastic box" you get at Best Buy. No normal router
is going to have RS232 serial on or an RJ11. But these
guys just might have a way.

https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=23565

https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Dial-up

If I needed something goofy, that's the company I
would check out.

Paul

In message ,
writes:
Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS, which
stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to clear that
thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames entirely, since I
dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of usage.
I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted stuff, and other
stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

Empty C:\Documents and Settings\me\Recent

1. for "me" substitute whatever is necessary
2. for "Recent" you may need to substitute "My Recent Documents"
(3. It may be hidden. I have hidden things shown anyway.)

make up a batch file to do this at startup or shutdown. (I don't know
how to make one run at shutdown.)

They don't exactly eat your HD space - there are 1,615 in my Recent
folder, occupying a huge 947 KB. But I take your point, and no, I don't
know how to stop it using them. I think of you use "File | Open" from
applications, rather than opening files from Explorer, they won't be
created, but that is more tedious - and they'll still appear in the
application's _own_ "File" list in most cases.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I don't like activity holidays. I like /inactivity/ holidays.
- Miriam Margolyes, RT 2017/4/15-21

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message ,
writes:
Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS, which
stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to clear that
thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames entirely, since I
dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of usage.
I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted stuff, and other
stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

Empty C:\Documents and Settings\me\Recent

1. for "me" substitute whatever is necessary
2. for "Recent" you may need to substitute "My Recent Documents"
(3. It may be hidden. I have hidden things shown anyway.)

make up a batch file to do this at startup or shutdown. (I don't know
how to make one run at shutdown.)

They don't exactly eat your HD space - there are 1,615 in my Recent
folder, occupying a huge 947 KB. But I take your point, and no, I don't
know how to stop it using them. I think of you use "File | Open" from
applications, rather than opening files from Explorer, they won't be
created, but that is more tedious - and they'll still appear in the
application's _own_ "File" list in most cases.
--

You can automatically clear the recent documents with this .reg file. Save
it as a pure text file (using Notepad, not Wordpad), and then rename it with
a .reg extension, and double click it. At least it works for me (for Windows
XP). As always, it's good to make a backup first with any registry or system
changes, but that should go without saying.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"=dword:00000001

On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 19:08:12 -0700, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message ,
writes:
Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS, which
stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to clear that
thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames entirely, since I
dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of usage.
I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted stuff, and other
stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

Empty C:\Documents and Settings\me\Recent

1. for "me" substitute whatever is necessary
2. for "Recent" you may need to substitute "My Recent Documents"
(3. It may be hidden. I have hidden things shown anyway.)

make up a batch file to do this at startup or shutdown. (I don't know
how to make one run at shutdown.)

They don't exactly eat your HD space - there are 1,615 in my Recent
folder, occupying a huge 947 KB. But I take your point, and no, I don't
know how to stop it using them. I think of you use "File | Open" from
applications, rather than opening files from Explorer, they won't be
created, but that is more tedious - and they'll still appear in the
application's _own_ "File" list in most cases.
--

You can automatically clear the recent documents with this .reg file. Save
it as a pure text file (using Notepad, not Wordpad), and then rename it with
a .reg extension, and double click it. At least it works for me (for Windows
XP). As always, it's good to make a backup first with any registry or system
changes, but that should go without saying.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"=dword:00000001


Why not just right click the start button then click properties and
then customize. There is a prompt there to clear your recent activity.

wrote:
On Mon, 27 Nov 2017 19:08:12 -0700, "Bill in Co"
wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message ,
writes:
Click on the START button, and there is a thing called DOCUMENTS, which
stores a bunch of recently opened files. I cant recall how to clear
that
thing.... (Better yet, stop it from saving filenames entirely, since I
dont use it ever).

All that is, is another waste of HDD space and a way to track usage,
which I dont appreciate. I do my best to clean away all traces of
usage.
I clear the cache on browsers, manually delete unwanted stuff, and
other
stuff, but this thing keeps filling up with crap I will never use....

If I want to open a recent document or picture, I go to the source
folder, not that worthless DOCUMENTS thingie....

Empty C:\Documents and Settings\me\Recent

1. for "me" substitute whatever is necessary
2. for "Recent" you may need to substitute "My Recent Documents"
(3. It may be hidden. I have hidden things shown anyway.)

make up a batch file to do this at startup or shutdown. (I don't know
how to make one run at shutdown.)

They don't exactly eat your HD space - there are 1,615 in my Recent
folder, occupying a huge 947 KB. But I take your point, and no, I don't
know how to stop it using them. I think of you use "File | Open" from
applications, rather than opening files from Explorer, they won't be
created, but that is more tedious - and they'll still appear in the
application's _own_ "File" list in most cases.
--

You can automatically clear the recent documents with this .reg file.
Save
it as a pure text file (using Notepad, not Wordpad), and then rename it
with
a .reg extension, and double click it. At least it works for me (for
Windows
XP). As always, it's good to make a backup first with any registry or
system
changes, but that should go without saying.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"=dword:00000001


Why not just right click the start button then click properties and
then customize. There is a prompt there to clear your recent activity.

The registry file makes it completely automatic.