Jsizzle
Member
My Recent Folder (AppData-Roaming-Microsoft-Windows-Recent) only shows things up to 4 days ago. Is there anyone I can look further back a week or so?
Thanks
Thanks
Recent Folder question
- Thread starter Jsizzle
- Start date
Imperfect1
Vista Guru
I could be wrong, but Recent Items only has room for a limited number of items, and most of us exceed that number every few days. So I think that the number of items that are shown in the Recent Items list is not determined by how many days back the list goes, but how many files or folders we've opened. In other words, it doesn't work like the History folder that shows every site gone to within a certain period of time.
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- HP Pavillion dv5t (Gen. 1)
- CPU
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53 GHz)
- Memory
- 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- Graphics card(s)
- 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 15.4" diagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display
- Screen Resolution
- 1680 x 1050
- Hard Drives
- 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- Mouse
- built in - Synaptics TouchPad V6.5 on PS/2 Port
- Keyboard
- built in - HP
- Internet Speed
- max
- Other Info
- ~ Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card w/Bluetooth ~ Blu-Ray ROM DVD+/-R/RW ~ Integ. HDTV Hybrid Tuner ~ 12 Cell Battery ~ MS Office (Home Premium) 2007 ~
Lorien
Account Suspended
Here's how to change the number of items shown in the Recent Items list in the Start Menu (not in the folder you're talking about - we'll get to that in a moment): Change Number Of Recent Items On Vista’s Start Menu . After you do this (try something no higher than 50 or you may be pushing it), you will need to right click on Start and click properties and change the number of items to show (which should now allow you to increase it to 50 if everything went right). It won't happen immediately, it will need to build up the list from when it was changed. First, I'm not sure this will work if there's a problem with your Recent file in your user profile since it essentially gets the information from there (and/or the registry) and if that is limited, this change may not make any difference as the source information may not be available - but it's worth a try (and it will improve how much you see from the Start Menu (if it works correctly)). But that's not what you asked about, so let's talk about your real question.
As far as I know, the Recent file in your user profile has no date limit though it may have a size limit. I could find no information about this file or how to modify it if that's even possible. On my system (32-bit Vista Business SP2), I seem to be limited to 150 items (which seems like plenty) but they go back months (even years) - there appears to be no date limit (I don't open many different files very often). I could find no settings to adjust this file size or set a date limit (and though I could see where all the entries are stored in the registry I could find no registry key to set the storage limits). When you say you can only go back 4 days, how many files are in the Recent history file (is it 150 like mine or some smaller number)? If you add a new recent item, does the number change or is the oldest item deleted to make room for the new entry? In other words, is the limitation based on the date as you suggested or is it based on the maximum number of files as I suspect?
If you have another user on the computer, log into that account and see if it has the same problem - open and modify some files if necessary to test it out if it doesn't have much of a history. If not - if it shows more files and goes back further (you may need a few days to test the date issue if it doesn't already have older items listed), then your user profile may be corrupt. To fix this use http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-vista/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile.
Other that that (and some generic troubleshooting and/or some rather radical options), I'm not quite sure what else to suggest at this point. Perhaps feedback from what you find by doing the checks I recommended and by answering my questions will provide a lead to some easier alternative than a full blown troublshooting process. Perhaps it will turn out to simply be a corrupt user profile and the above procedure will resolve the issue (if there is an issue - I don't know your computer usage habits and you may be maxing out even at 150 in 4 days for all I know).
I hope this helps and either resolves the problem or identifies the problem or determines there is no problem and you are simply maxing out the system (for which we can't do anything as far as I can ascertain). But try the above and see if anything helps and then reply back with as much detail as you can. The more we know, the better the chances we can help.
Good luck!
As far as I know, the Recent file in your user profile has no date limit though it may have a size limit. I could find no information about this file or how to modify it if that's even possible. On my system (32-bit Vista Business SP2), I seem to be limited to 150 items (which seems like plenty) but they go back months (even years) - there appears to be no date limit (I don't open many different files very often). I could find no settings to adjust this file size or set a date limit (and though I could see where all the entries are stored in the registry I could find no registry key to set the storage limits). When you say you can only go back 4 days, how many files are in the Recent history file (is it 150 like mine or some smaller number)? If you add a new recent item, does the number change or is the oldest item deleted to make room for the new entry? In other words, is the limitation based on the date as you suggested or is it based on the maximum number of files as I suspect?
If you have another user on the computer, log into that account and see if it has the same problem - open and modify some files if necessary to test it out if it doesn't have much of a history. If not - if it shows more files and goes back further (you may need a few days to test the date issue if it doesn't already have older items listed), then your user profile may be corrupt. To fix this use http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-vista/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile.
Other that that (and some generic troubleshooting and/or some rather radical options), I'm not quite sure what else to suggest at this point. Perhaps feedback from what you find by doing the checks I recommended and by answering my questions will provide a lead to some easier alternative than a full blown troublshooting process. Perhaps it will turn out to simply be a corrupt user profile and the above procedure will resolve the issue (if there is an issue - I don't know your computer usage habits and you may be maxing out even at 150 in 4 days for all I know).
I hope this helps and either resolves the problem or identifies the problem or determines there is no problem and you are simply maxing out the system (for which we can't do anything as far as I can ascertain). But try the above and see if anything helps and then reply back with as much detail as you can. The more we know, the better the chances we can help.
Good luck!
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell Inc. MP061 Inspiron E1705
- CPU
- 2.00 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo 64 kilobyte primary memory
- Motherboard
- Board: Dell Inc. 0YD479 Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
- Memory
- 2046 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
- Graphics card(s)
- ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) [Di
- Sound Card
- SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Generic PnP Monitor (17.2"vis)
- Screen Resolution
- 1920 x 1200 pixels
- Hard Drives
- Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2411SJGLLRMB, rev SB4OC74P, SMART Status: Healthy
- Case
- Chassis Serial Number: 5YK95C1
- Mouse
- Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
- Keyboard
- Standard PS/2 Keyboard
- Internet Speed
- 1958 Kbps download ; 754.8 Kbps upload
- Other Info
- Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5540A ATA Device [CD-ROM drive] Dell AIO Printer A940 Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem 6TO4 Adapter Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface Router Linksys / WRT54G -01
Jsizzle
Member
Imperfect1
Vista Guru
Here's a GREAT work-around for you, and frankly, I think it's much better than using the Start Menu's Recent Items list, because in my Recent Items, I can only get a maximum of 15 items, (even though it's set to 30 items) BUT by adding the Recent Items list to my Quick Launch menu, I now have exactly the same easy access to it -- and I get well over 100 items!!!
TO ADD RECENT ITEMS TO QUICK LAUNCH MENU:
Go to Recent Items in Windows Explorer: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items
Right-click on Recent Items and select: Send to Quick Launch
Voila!!!
TO ADD RECENT ITEMS TO QUICK LAUNCH MENU:
Go to Recent Items in Windows Explorer: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent Items
Right-click on Recent Items and select: Send to Quick Launch
Voila!!!
My Computer
System One
-
- Manufacturer/Model
- HP Pavillion dv5t (Gen. 1)
- CPU
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9400 (2.53 GHz)
- Memory
- 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- Graphics card(s)
- 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 15.4" diagonal WSXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display
- Screen Resolution
- 1680 x 1050
- Hard Drives
- 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- Mouse
- built in - Synaptics TouchPad V6.5 on PS/2 Port
- Keyboard
- built in - HP
- Internet Speed
- max
- Other Info
- ~ Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card w/Bluetooth ~ Blu-Ray ROM DVD+/-R/RW ~ Integ. HDTV Hybrid Tuner ~ 12 Cell Battery ~ MS Office (Home Premium) 2007 ~