Windows 10: Huge number of invisible files in the "Recent items" folder in roaming profiles.

I've been having this issue for years and never managed to find any clear answers on it so thought it was time I reached out for help.The folder %Userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent has a huge number of files in for all our users. Well over 10,000 files for many. As far as I can tell it never cleans up old files instead presumably storing and endless list of every file a user has ever opened.This of course increases the profile size and log in times.The problem is I can't find any way to delete these files. If I open the folder for a particular user on the server I only se

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How to increase the number of items shown in "Recent Folders" folder in Windows 10, or "Recent Items" folder.

So I wanted a Desktop shortcut and an entry in Quick Access in any Explorer folder's sidebar to let me see a good sized list of recent folder I had opened.

For the 1st I followed these instructions:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/17486-create-recent-folders-shortcut-windows-10-a.html

Nice. NOTE: You can pin that to the Taskbar or Startmenu if desired.

For the 2nd I followed these instructions:

https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/...ces-navigation-pane-windows-10-file-explorer/

And followed thru to pin that to Quick Access.

(After opening I add a column for "Date Accessed" and sort it based on that.)

BUT: the numer items listed in the resulting Quick Access folder seems capped at an odd arbitrary 33 items.

I wanted to increase that to 50, just to have a longer historical list of folders I had opened in the recent past.

SOOOO.... I Googled up these instructions for a small registry hack:

https://www.howtogeek.com/267705/how-to-increase-the-number-of-jump-list-items-in-windows-10/

which adds a registry entry "JumpListItems_Maximum" in the appropriate place in the registry to set the legth of Widows' "Jump Lists." In my case I set the decimal value to 50, then used File,
Exit to properly close RegEdit. The article says that should instantly increase the number of "Recent" type listings to 50.

I closed all open "Recent Folders" folders I had opened earlier, then I opened some new folders and then tried both the Desktop shortcut and the Quick Access link, HOWEVER, the number of items in both is still capped at 33.

Has that capability be removed or is there some other way to do what I am trying to do?

NOTE: I can also go to C:\Users\<my userame>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent (I created a desktop shortcut to that) then put kind=folder in the Search box.

THAT list seems capped at 36 long. Weird. Still a cap but slightly longer.

This all seems arbitrary, and capped at 33 and 36, respectively.

Help me understand how those folders work, if there really is any way to control their length, and why that Jump List length Registry hack no longer works.

THANKS.

 

"Recent Items" list vs Opening a folder for Recent Items


Hello all... I am not understanding how MS elected removed the list of recent files and replaced it with opening a folder to see the recent files. That is now a 2 step process because you have to close the folder. I used the "recent items" a lot and I miss it - I'm sure others do ass well.
The solutions offered here only are partial, they only add the link to the start menu / jump lists, but those still open an actual folder which then has to be closed. If you open multiple files, then you have to close multiple folders. Odd...
I'm not a programmer - but I'm thinking (hoping!) that someone around here may be knowledgeable enough to find a way to return the actual "Recent Items" list, without opening a folder.
I'm thinking I may not be alone on this one...
Thank you!!

 

Recent items folder Empty


Hi - when I first open File Explorer all the recent items are there. I've added the Recent Items Folder to the Quick Access menu using instructions I found here by opening the shell:recent window.
but it always says that the recent items folder is empty.The thread across the top says it is in User - App Data- Roaming-Microsoft-Windows-Recent Items
Not very tech savvy so any advice gratefully received!