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The Documents Menu is a clever idea - it displays a list of the last
dozen-or-so programs and files opened from the Explorer. You can clear
the menu temporarily; the only problem is that there's no way to turn
it off permanently. This can be seen as a lapse in security, and the
lack of a way to turn it off is confusing. Microsoft calls this a
"feature," and claims that there is no way to disable it - we have
come up with a way around it:
To clear the menu temporarily, follow the following directions:
Right-click on an empty portion of the taskbar.
Select Properties from the menu that appears, and click on the Start Menu Programs tab.
Click Clear to clean out the menu. Note this is only temporary until you launch another file.
To make the documents menu always empty, follow the following
directions:
Right-click on the Recycle Bin on the Desktop, and select
Properties from the menu.
Under the Global Tab, select Use one setting for all
drives.
Turn on the option labeled Do not move files to the
recycle bin.
Next, run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\
CurrentVersion\ explorer\ Shell Folders.
At the right side of the window, there should be a list
containing one or more of your "special" folders.
If an entry named Recent doesn't already exist, select New
from the Edit menu, and then select String Value. Rename the new item to "Recent."
Next, double-click on Recent, and under Value Data, type
c:\recycled.
Press OK and then close the Registry Editor.
Click on the desktop, and press F5 to refresh the desktop
so that this change will take effect. (Click here for more info.)
Note: In order for this to work, you must set the Recycle
Bin so it deletes files instantly, or you'll have a bunch of old
files in your Documents menu. |