All,
A while back, I provided a link to a script to show an example of how to clear the run history. I still get a lot of questions about the Run History, and clearing it. I have put this document together to hopefully help answer the questions about clearing the run history.
How to clear the run history: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/7034.how-to-clear-the-run-history.aspx
The document will go through and talk about the different ways that you can clear the run history, and also has some common questions that are asked to me about the run history. I hope that this helps.
Feedback is always welcome!
It is easy and quick to use the run command to launch programs. When you’ve opened a lot of programs, there will be too many pre-loaded commands in the run box history. Here are steps on how to clear Run history in Windows 10.
Clear Run History in Windows 10
We can open the Registry Editor to clear Run history in Windows 10. Do the following steps:
Step 1. Press Windows key + R simultaneously to open the Run box.
How To Clear Run History Using Cmd
Step 2. Type “regedit” in the text field and hit Enter.
Step 3. In the registry editor, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
Step 4. In the HKEY_CURRENT_USER directory, you could view several subdirectory, locate the Software entry and expand it.
Step 5. Go to Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > RunMRU.
Note: The entire Run history is on the right side.
Step 6. Right click on any of the Run command history file and click Delete.
You may also like to check out:
If you have any questions about how to delete or clear Run history in Windows 10, don’t hesitate to leave comments below.
One thing that I use almost every minute is the Windows Run box (WINDOWS+R). It let's you type a path and auto-completes it really quickly so that you can jump to any dir in no time.
My problem is that I recently swapped disks and re-organized content so a few of the drive letters changed while most (but not all) the dir structure stayed the same. Now the auto-complete is giving me a lot of old results that don't physically exist anymore and it's not only annoying but the advantage of speed is not there anymore because I now have to check for old results in my auto-complete!
How can I clear that auto-complete's cache?
Thanks!
EDIT: I'm not talking about how to clear the last run items from the Windows Start menu. This is completely different. What I'm talking about auto-completes directories in the file system and is 'remembering' old auto-completed paths (which are NOT programs, just paths).
Hennes59.7k77 gold badges9494 silver badges144144 bronze badges
JulianJulian
migrated from stackoverflow.comMay 24 '11 at 16:02
This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.
6 Answers
Try looking here: http://www.wikihow.com/Delete-Run-History-in-Windows
EDIT: I am on an XP machine, so I can't test this next bit, but does it work? http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Clear-the-Run-history-on-the-Start-menu
Tom ChantlerTom Chantler
Clear the entries in
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerRunMRU
Edit: AutoComplete in the Run box is set in (of course) Internet Explorer's settings (Content Tab / AutoComplete): there's a button to Delete Autocomplete History. If that doesn't work, you could try turning AutoComplete off, rebooting, and turning it on again.
stuartdstuartd
At least on Windows 8 the auto-complete history you are looking for is at
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerTypedPaths
A solid state OS drive and NirSoft's RegScanner and you're set to find anything in the registry quickly.
Christopher GalpinChristopher Galpin
I would do it the following way:
- Get SysInternal's Process Monitor
- Filter to 'Explorer.exe' as the process/file
- Execute
Win+R
- See what is happening in Process Monitor (I assume that some registry/files are involved)
- See whether you can delete those found entries/contents.
Update
Seems others have better answers than I, please see those for a direct solution to your question.
Sathyajith Bhat♦53.5k3030 gold badges158158 silver badges254254 bronze badges
Uwe KeimUwe Keim1,30866 gold badges2222 silver badges4545 bronze badges
It's definitely not stored in the registry as I've searched it, so no idea where it lives.
The only way I've found to do this is to use CCleaner, http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download .
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LudoLudo
I just found out the answer on my Windows 10 machine, booting from a Linux liveCD and doing a grep search.
It's in
ScottC:UsersusernameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsRecent
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niania
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged windowscacherun-dialog or ask your own question.
When you click the Search text box in Explorer, the previously typed search queries (MRU) are displayed in the drop-down box. Also, when you type a search query, the autocomplete lists possible matches as you type. Here is how to clear the search entries individually and collectively, in Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10.
You can remove an item from the Search MRU list by highlighting that item (using the mouse, or Up/Down keys) and then pressing the DELETE key.
How To Clear Run History In Windows 8
In Windows 10, you can use “Clear search history” option listed under “Recent searches” ribbon button in the Search tab.
Clear Search History
To clear the entire Search MRU History via the registry directly, use these steps:
1. Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press ENTER.
2. Navigate to the following branch:
3. Right-click the WordWheelQuery branch and choose Delete
This clears the entire search MRU list. To clear specific entries, double-click each binary value until you find the appropriate value to delete. Right-click on the value and choose Delete.
4. Exit the Registry Editor.
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About the author
Ramesh Srinivasan founded Winhelponline.com back in 2005. He is passionate about Microsoft technologies and has a vast experience in Windows — delivering support for Microsoft's consumer products. He has been a Microsoft MVP (2003-2012) who contributes to various Windows support forums.