Removes the Documents menu from the Start menu
The Recent Items menu contains links to the nonprogram files that users have most recently opened. It appears so that users can easily reopen their documents. If you enable this setting, the system saves document shortcuts but does not display them in the Recent Items menu. If you later disable it or set it to Not Configured, the document shortcuts saved before the setting was enabled and while it was in effect appear in the Recent Items menu. Note: This setting does not prevent Windows programs from displaying shortcuts to recently opened documents. See the Do not keep history of recently opened documents setting. Also, see the Do not keep history of recently opened documents and Clear history of recently opened documents on exit policies in this folder. This setting also does not hide document shortcuts displayed in the Open dialog box.NoRecentDocsMenu
Clear history of recently opened documents on exit
If you enable this setting, the system deletes shortcuts to recently used document files when the user logs off. As a result, the Documents menu on the Start menu is always empty when the user logs on. If you disable or do not configure this setting, the system retains document shortcuts, and when a user logs on the Documents menu appears just as it did when the user logged off. Note: The system saves document shortcuts in the user profile in the System-drive\Documents and Settings\User-name\Recent folder. Also, see the Remove Documents menu from Start Menu and Do not keep history of recently opened documents policies in this folder. The system only uses this setting when neither of these related settings are selected. This setting does not clear the list of recent files that Windows programs display at the bottom of the File menu. See the Do not keep history of recently opened documents setting. This policy setting also does not hide document shortcuts displayed in the Open dialog box.ClearRecentDocsOnExit
Do not keep history of recently opened documents
Prevents the operating system and installed programs from creating and displaying shortcuts to recently opened documents. If you enable this setting, the system and Windows programs do not create shortcuts to documents opened while the setting is in effect. Also, they retain but do not display existing document shortcuts. The system empties the Documents menu on the Start menu, and Windows programs do not display shortcuts at the bottom of the File menu. If you disable this setting, the system defaults are enforced. Disabling this setting has no effect on the system. Note: The system saves document shortcuts in the user profile in the System-drive\Documents and Settings\User-name\Recent folder. Also, see the Remove Documents menu from Start Menu and Clear history of recently opened documents on exit policies in this folder. If you enable this setting but do not enable the Remove Documents menu from Start Menu setting, the Documents menu appears on the Start menu, but it is empty. If you enable this setting, but then later disable it or set it to Not Configured, the document shortcuts saved before the setting was enabled reappear in the Documents menu and program File menus. This setting does not hide document shortcuts displayed in the Open dialog box.NoRecentDocsHistory
The System Registry branch for all these System Policies is the same - Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer on hive - HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 (also absent) or 1
As Microsoft gives in their Administrative Templates spreadsheets, all of these three system policies are applied on User-based scope, despite the fact that they could be enabled on Local-machine as well, what I found while testing my software.
Another fact, Microsoft Administrative Templates tell that these system policies act at least since Windows 2000. No, they can be applied in Windows Me, Windows NT 3.51 and Windows NT 4.0
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