Is there a Windows 8 equivalent of 'Recent Items'/'My Recent Documents'?

Question

I used to use "Recent Items" and "My Recent Documents" in the start menu in previous versions of Windows to quickly open a recently opened document/activity.

Is there an equivalent aggregated list of recent documents in Windows 8, or is it just per application?

If there isn't an equivalent, is there a way I can quickly access a list of recently accessed, opened, and edited documents?

avirk · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-30T07:03:17.543

44

Yes, there is a way to do this: Just open the run dialog box by pressing Win + R and type in "recent". There you can see your recent activities.

Note: "Recent places" can be access under Windows Explorer's under "Favorite".

Also you can create a shortcut of the "recent" at your desktop and then pin it to start menu. For this just right click on desktop and seclect New>Shortcut. In file location type the path

C:/users/username/recent

and click the Next button, it will prompt the name and now click Finish. You will see the shortcut on desktop now and you can pin it to start menu. Also you can define Hotkey for this from properties now.

edited Oct 30 '12 at 07:03

answered Oct 24 '12 at 15:54

avirk

15,777

6

No idea why this has been accepted as an answer. Typing "recent" into the run dialog results in an error. – pmcs Mar 07 '13 at 04:39
3

May be something going wrong on your side, I had use that command without any problem. Alas! now I don't have Win8 for your query at the moment, but I'm sure you should have to give a try to sfc /scannnow for any error on your system. – avirk Mar 07 '13 at 07:13
1

Win8 Pro 64bit en-US here, works fine. – Szymon Szydełko Jun 27 '13 at 11:57
1

Error Message: Windows can not find 'recent' – Arif Aug 02 '13 at 22:06
pretty fresh install (few weeks old), 'windows cannot find recent' when used in run dialog. Also, recent places in explorer is just a list of recently accessed folders, not documents – danwellman Sep 22 '13 at 08:25
3

@danwellman give a try to `shell:recent' command and see if it helps you. As it works on windows 7 and I don't have Windows 8 now. So can't dig deep for this. – avirk Sep 22 '13 at 12:59
Thanks, I actually used Gord's suggestion below and it worked well for my situation :) – danwellman Sep 23 '13 at 10:17
@danwellman Hmmm so you mean none of my suggestion didn't worked for you. I made a search on Google and its happen with many users that they got the problem with this command and some users could use it without any problems. Strnage issue. – avirk Sep 23 '13 at 10:27
Well, I was able to open recent places in Explorer, but it was a collection of folders I'd opened recently, whereas what I wanted was documents opened recently. Your advice was sound, just not what I needed :) – danwellman Sep 23 '13 at 19:49
Doesn't work on Windows 8 or 8.1 Update – nathanchere Oct 29 '14 at 09:03
"as it works on windows 7 and I don't have Windows 8 now." - question is tagged Windows 8 – nathanchere Oct 29 '14 at 09:05
1

@nathanchere that means this command works on Windows 7 so should be on Windows 8, and it was as I used it on Windows 8 enterprise release. Now I don't use Windows 8 because I love Windows 7 more. The answer I provided checked on windows 8 and then answered here, also answer accepted because it worked for the OP. – avirk Oct 30 '14 at 01:16
When you type something in the "Run" box, you are running it from your C:\Users\<username> folder. So just run "." to browse it with file explorer ("." = current folder) and look for a "Recent" or similar entry. You must have enabled the option to see hidden and system folders. Otherwise, run dir r* /a in that folder to find it. The "Recent" folder is a hidden and system joint folder pointing to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent. If your Windows is in another language, this joint folder may have a different name, like "Reciente" for Spanish. – Andrew Feb 09 '15 at 12:46

score 15 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 01 '14 at 11:52

15

Since avirk's solution didn't work for me I searched further and found a similar solution in Is there a Windows 8 "Recent Items" Jump List? .

It says you can access the recent files via

C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

I had to navigate manually to the location, but then I could drag the folder to the "Favorites" icon.

So I finally got a working solution now.

edited Feb 01 '14 at 11:52

Peter Mortensen

12,190

answered Feb 15 '13 at 12:34

Lunam

181

1

This should be the right answer (for Win 8). – mshsayem Jun 20 '13 at 14:48
In Windows 8 I have a "Recent" joint folder in C:\Users<username>, which points to that AppData folder. Have you browsed that folder in your PC to see if it's really not there? You should see it if you run this from a console: C:\Users\yourusername>dir r* /a. – Andrew Feb 09 '15 at 12:51

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 30 '14 at 13:54

13

You can pin your applications (such as Word or Excel) to the taskbar. Once you do that, you'll have your recent item list for that application when you right click the icon.

edited Jun 30 '14 at 13:54

Peter Mortensen

12,190

answered Dec 06 '12 at 15:00

Gord

131

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 01 '14 at 11:48

4

Launch File Explorer. There is a Recent Places link under Favourites. This includes all sorts of things that are not documents.

You could pin the associated application to the Taskbar. You then right-click and see a jumplist of recent documents, but this is application specific. All we want is an easily exposed method to see a menu list of recent documents that doesn't require you to launch a shortcut to a folder of other shortcuts. Windows 7 had this, Windows 8 does not.

edited Feb 01 '14 at 11:48

Peter Mortensen

12,190

answered Dec 05 '12 at 11:20

envio

49

This worked for me. – Ramhound Dec 05 '12 at 12:09

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 27 '13 at 10:27

The Win + R "recent" thing doesn't seem to work, or at least work reliably for everyone. I've found what I think is a better solution and it'll work for everyone.

Open a Command Prompt (Win + R and type cmd and hit enter).

By default this should start in your user directory, for example C:\Users\UserName. If you're not already there, change to that directory. Run the following command:

mklink /J "Recent Items" "AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent"

This will create a link to your recent items in your home directory that is also navigable via the folder view on the left side of Explorer, which a normal shortcut is not.

This is a nice solution. To make it even better and quicker to access your recent items, you can create a Windows Taskbar toolbar item out of this since it acts like a folder. Just right-click the taskbar -> Toolbars -> New toolbar... and select the new reference created by the cmd above. Now you can access the items directly from the taskbar! — Neil Monroe, Mar 19 '14 at 19:47

score -1 · Answer 6 · edited Dec 18 '12 at 20:43

Just open the run dialog box by pressing Win + R and type in "recent". There you can see your recent activities in the Explorer window.
In this Explorer window, right-click the icon for the “recent” path and choose Copy address.
Now, go to the Desktop and right-click and choose Paste shortcut. A shortcut icon pointing to “recent” will be created. You can now right-click this icon and choose Pin to start.

score -1 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 23 '12 at 22:27

Open Windows Explorer, My Computer or press the Windows + E key.
Navigate to "C:\USERS\"USERNAME"\". "USERNAME" is the name you logged onto Windows with.
"The recent folder should be in the list shown.
Right-click on the folder and select pin to start.

The recent folder will now be on the start screen. When you open it you see all your recent files and folders. Right-click on any file for the context menu.

score -1 · Answer 8 · edited Feb 01 '14 at 11:53

-1

Another option is Win + F to bring up the file search tile - then type in the partial file name.

edited Feb 01 '14 at 11:53

Peter Mortensen

12,190

answered Mar 30 '13 at 09:43

AndrewS

1

3

The point of the recent items is surely that you don't remember the file name – Jon Grant Jun 27 '13 at 10:32

Is there a Windows 8 equivalent of 'Recent Items'/'My Recent Documents'?

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