Hide or Display Recently Opened Programs in Start Menu

By Achilles Hill | Last Updated August 07, 2025

By default, the recently opened programs are shown in the Start Menu on Windows 10 computer. For your information, you can determine whether they are displayed or not, taking privacy protection into consideration. And this text minutely introduces how to hide or display recently opened programs in Start Menu.

Method 1: Toggle via Windows Settings

Step 1: Press Win + I to open Settings. Then navigate to Personalization and click Start on the sidebar.

Step 2: Toggle on or off the following options: Show recently added apps, Show most used apps, Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar.

Turning off these options removes those items from the Start menu and Jump Lists immediately.

Here, you can also click Choose which folders appear on Start to select folders appeared on Start menu.

Method 2: Use Group Policy Editor (Windows Pro/Education/Enterprise)

Step 1: Open the Run dialog box and enter gpedit.msc. Then click the OK button.

Step 2: Head to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar.

Step 3: Go to the right panel and enable these settings to hide components: Remove "Recently added" list from Start Menu, Remove "Most used" apps from Start Menu, Do not keep history of recently opened documents.