Clear File Explorer Search History
You can clear your recent search history by selecting the Search tab in File Explorer and going to Recent Searches > Clear search History.
Disable File Explorer Search History
If you don’t want to clear your history all the time, you can completely disable it from keeping track of your searches. On Windows 10 Pro, you can turn off search history in Group Policy, but for Windows 10 Home, you need to do a bit of tweaking in the Registry. On Windows 10 Pro If you’re running Windows 10 Professional, you can turn it off via Group Policy. Hit the keyboard combo Windows Key + R and type: gpedit.msc in the Run dialog and hit Enter or click OK.
Then navigate to the following path: Double-click on the “Turn off display of recent search entries in the File Explorer search box” policy in the right pane and set it to Enabled, click OK, and closeout of Group Policy Editor.
In Windows 10 Home Hit Windows Key + R and type: regedit in the Run line and hit Enter or click OK.
Then head to the following location: Right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions and give it a value of 1.
After you’re done, close out of the Registry, and you will need to log off or restart your system before you see the change. You will no longer see the history of past searches in File Explorer. If you want to enable it later, go back and change the value of DisableSearchBoxSuggestions to 0. What are some of the ways you tweak File Explorer in Windows 10? Leave a comment below or join our Windows 10 Forums for more discussion and troubleshooting help. Comment Name * Email *
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