Disappearing "Recent Documents"

[gozarski]

I use Word 2007 on a Vista PC. The "recent documents" feature has
always worked just fine (and I find it very handy). However, I recently
noticed that the 'recent documents" pane no longer displays any of my
previously opened or new documents after I exit Word. The files exist
but they are not retained in the "recent documents" pane, even when
"pinned", when I open Word again. I believe the same thing is happening
to my Excel files. I really could use some help on this!

 

[Pesach Shelnitz]

Hi,

Click the Office Button, click Word Options, click Advanced, go about
half-way down the list of options, and check the number in the Display this
Number of Recent Documents option. If it is 0, change it to the number of
recent documents that you want displayed and click OK.

 

[gozarski]

Thanks for the quick reply, Pesach. I had checked out the advanced
button in Word when I first noticed the problem. The "Display This
Number of Recent Documents" was set at 17. I reduced that number to 15
just to see if it made a difference -- it hasn't. My list of "Recent
Documents" still disappear". Any other suggestions?
Gregg

 

[Pesach Shelnitz]

Hi,

Check your registry with Regedit and see if you have the following registry
key and if any files are listed in the values under it:

HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\File MRU

If this key is corrupted you can delete it when Word is closed. Then Word
will recreate it the next time that you open a file in Word.

 

[gozarski]

Pesach,
I checked the Registry as you suggested. Initially, files were,
indeed, listed in the values (I've been using Word today editing a
number of documents). It seems like when I was in Word today, I can
close Word, re-open it, and my documents would remain listed under
"Recent Documents" (that wasn't always the case yesterday). However,
when I re-booted the computer, all the documents under "Recent
Documents" would again disappear.

Currently, I have no files listed under "Recent Documents". The
Registry entry is also clear of any files. The only Registry entry
under "File MRU" for Word are: NAME: (Default); TYPE: Reg_SZ; DATA:
(value not set).

I do really appreciate your efforts in helping resolve this issue. Any
other tricks up your sleeve?
Gregg

 

[Stefan Blom]

Exit Word and Outlook. In the registry, delete the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\File MRU key. Restart
Word. Now, if you open documents, will they be added to your recent file
list?

 

[gozarski]

Stefan,
I followed your suggestion and deleted the FILE MRU KEY and all of its
sub-keys after shutting down WORD and Outlook. When I re-started Word,
I had files listed under the "Recent Documents" pane (yea!). However,
when I re-booted the computer and re-opened Word, the files in the
"Recent Documents" pane were gone again (boo!).

Thanks so very much for your help!! Do yo have any other suggestions?
Gregg

 

[Stefan Blom]

Something is apparently preventing your user account from saving to the
registry (or the settings are reset on each log-in). Is this a home or work
computer? Are you running any utilities that "clears" the registry?