How to Exclude Files and Folders From Recent Files on Windows 10

File Explorer dynamically updates the files and folders it shows under Quick Access, based on the files you’ve recently opened. Generally, it works out to be a time-saving feature, allowing you to quickly access files or folders you’ve worked on most recently.

But once in a while it’ll make your life easier if you could just hide these recent results -- for a presentation, for example. Here’s how it’s done.

1. Type explorer in the search box on the Taskbar.

2. From the search options, select File Explorer.

3. In the list of Frequent folders, right-click on the folder you want to exclude.

4. In the context menu that opens, select Remove from Quick Access. Follow a similar process to exclude files from the Recent files list.

5. Click X in the upper right corner to close the File Explorer window.

Credit: Microsoft