Recent Documents are Missing from File Menus in Office XP In most applications, a list of the most frequently opened documents is shown at the bottom of that application's File menu. However, due to a bug in Microsoft Office XP, there may be no such list in Word 2002, Access 2002, Excel 2002, or PowerPoint 2002. To find out if the bug affects you, open any Office XP application, select Options from the Tools menu, and choose the General tab. If the Recently used file list is grayed out (disabled), then the bug affects you. Otherwise, place a check in the checkbox, and you're done! Here's how to fix this bug: Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer. On the right side, delete the NoRecentDocsHistory value. Close the Registry Editor when you're done; the change will take affect the next time you start any Office XP application. Written by: Annoyances.org Last updated: Saturday, February 9, 2002 Care to discuss this article with other Windows users? Select your operating system here, and click Continue to post your question. - Choose your OS -Windows 7Windows VistaWindows Server 2003Windows XPWindows 2000Windows MeWindows 98Windows 95 Previous discussions about this article: (open a message to see applicable responses, if any) [Windows 98] Question about 'Recent Documents are Missing from File Menus in Office XP' (BC in Big D: Monday, February 25, 2002) [Windows 2000] Question about 'Recent Documents are Missing from File Menus in Office XP' (H YOO: Thursday, May 6, 2004) [Windows XP] Question about 'Recent Documents are Missing from File Menus in Office XP' (Fred Rosenberg: Saturday, July 24, 2004) [Windows 98] Question about 'Recent Documents are Missing from File Menus in Office XP' (C.Ramachandran: Wednesday, July 28, 2004) Return to "Applications"