How to clear windows run history

by admin on November 3, 2009

Windows stores the list of the commands we execute from Run window. This can be seen by clicking on the drop down list in Run window.

This history of command is stored in a per user key in registry database. One can clear this command history by cleaning up the entries under this registry key.

This registry key is

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

So to cleanup command history we can simply run the below command from command prompt.

reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU /va /f

Note that after running the above command you would still be able to see history for the current login session. Once you logoff and login back you won’t be able to see the history.

Additional Reading...

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

Anonymous December 9, 2009 at 7:10 pm: Are you guys talking about Windows 7? Deleting RunMRU does not delete the "suggested" list of commands. As far as the "2nd way", "Properties" in Windows 7 brings "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" that has three tabs; Taskbar and Start Menu have their own Customize buttons. Please verify your solutions before posting them.

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Techblogger January 12, 2010 at 6:48 am: Anonymous,

The solution posted in this article works for Windows 7 too.. just pause few seconds after deleting the regkey and open 'Run'.. I have just tried this on my windows 7 machine and it has worked fine…

I am not sure about the solution posted by D2 above..

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Anonymous April 15, 2010 at 9:30 pm: Solution works on 32 and 64 bit windows 7… Thanks!

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Frey July 27, 2010 at 1:24 am: You just have to right click the start button then properties uncheck the boxes and thats it.

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Techblogger July 27, 2010 at 5:56 am: Frey, thanks for adding the comment.. Yes we can do the same from UI too..But in case if you want to clear the run history repeatedly then running this command from a script is a good idea..suppose if I want to clear the cache everytime I login, then running this reg command from login script is a simpler solution compared to the UI one..

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syed November 21, 2011 at 6:52 am: It’s working on windows 7 thanks.

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Sajad November 22, 2011 at 2:57 am: Thanks,
Dear,
it (reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU /va /f)
Works on Win-7

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Subrat Kumar Rautara January 24, 2012 at 7:23 pm: Thanks It working very nice.

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