Windows 11 comes with an improved taskbar and start menu. The new Start menu has a centered launcher-like interface with rounded corners, and most of it looks sleek. However, there is a “recommended” section that lists recently opened files, which can be annoying for many people.
Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to get rid of these recommendations, which are basically our recently opened files. In this article, I’ll show you 2 quick and easy ways to remove or hide Recommended files from Windows 11 Start Menu.
Recommended section in the Windows 11 Start menu
The Start menu in Windows 11 has three parts: Pinned, All Apps, and Recommended. The upper part of the pin consists of pins arranged in a grid. Clicking All Apps will bring up a list of all the applications installed on your computer.
Under the pinned area is the Recommended section, which shows recently opened files, documents, and installed applications. This makes it easy to jump to the files that you’ve recently accessed. It displays up to six items, and you can choose to view all of the items using the “More” button.
However, many people may find it annoying and don’t want others to see what they’ve opened lately. In this case, you can completely disable the recommended files from the Start menu. You can also remove individual files from the list individually.
2 ways to hide recommended files in Windows 11 start menu
However, as you learn to hide recommended files from the start menu, the recommended section remains on the start menu. In the initial Developer Preview, I couldn’t find an option to hide or remove the Recommended section from the Windows 11 Start menu.
However, Microsoft may make changes in future updates. We really want them to allow users to disable this section and use the full Start menu to view apps.
Method 1: Completely remove recommended files using the Settings app in Windows 11
By following the steps below, you can completely prevent recently opened files from showing up in the recommended section of the Windows 11 Start menu. You can do this by unchecking just one option.
- Go to the Windows 11 Start menu and tap the settings to open it, or you can just open it with directly Win + me on your keyboard.
- Then tap Personalization in the sidebar on the left.
- Then go down in the personalization settings and tap begin.
- Switch here the “View recently opened items in Safari, Jump Lists, and File Explorer” Possibility.
That’s it. From now on, your recent files will no longer appear in the recommended section on the Start menu. Also, if you prefer to remove or hide recently added apps from the home screen, deselect the option “View recently added apps” Possibility.
Method 2. Hide recommended files one by one from the Windows 11 start menu
In addition to using the Settings app, you can also individually remove recently opened files from display in the recommended section in the Windows 11 Start menu with just a few clicks.
To remove or hide a recommended file, just right-click the file and tap Remove from the list. The file disappears from the start menu. That’s it! You can remove any files you want from the start.
last words
These are two simple methods that you can use to hide or remove recommended files from the Start menu in Windows 11. You can use Settings to completely remove files from their display in the Start menu, or just remove them one by one. Hope you now have a better, cleaner experience with the new Windows. Anyway, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Hold on for more. Enjoy Windows 11!
Also read:
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- How to fix Windows 11 and Linux showing different times when dual booting
- How to turn off automatic Windows updates in Windows 11
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