The Microsoft Office 'Recent file' list contain links to all office documents, web pages that were accessed by the user. Files in this list are independent of the files in Recent documents system folder. Hence this list cannot be cleared by merely clearing the 'Recent documents' folder. Office stores it's copy in a special folder called 'Recent'.

To clear it:

• Start Window Explorer.

• Navigate to 'C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent' folder. Replace <user> with the name of the current profile in use. e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\Shyam\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Recent. Also it assumes that the operating system has been installed on the C drive.

• Select all the files and delete it.

• This will clear the 'Recent files' list.