How Can I

Is there a way to keep some programs from having a history? Like some of my drawing programs keeps a long list of open recent. I have went to properties , general and taken the check out of archive and put it as read only. Thanks

 

Look under Options for a particular program for a setting for "Most recently used files" or "MRU" that allows you to set a number of files to remember. Example: MS Word 2000 under Tools>Options>General has a "Most recently used file" setting.

Edit: There's probably a registry tweak you could do for each program, but as I am not too up on tweaking the reg. maybe someone else could explain or help out.

 

For a registry tweak to work, the program would needed to be coded to respond to it. Or, you can lead a horse to water...
Most programs store their MRU's in the registry under the key HKey_Current_User\Software\[programcompany]\[programname].
A few others use an INI or a DAT file, both may be edited by using Notepad, if in text form. If you see what appears as gibberish, I would suggest not editing it using a text editor, you may render it unusable by the program.
Hmm, exactly which file did you change the attributes on? If you did an exe or com file, you wasted your time.

 

If I go to the registry do I delete the MRU or change the value?

 

Yes, you would delete them.They would be a list of values in the right pane of regedit, may be named A B C D and so forth. If you delete any of the values, you may notice a DWORD value named Count, you would have to modify the value data accordingly. You may have a String value called MRUlist with the names of the other values listed in it. This determines the order they appear. OR, this could get tricky for you as you may have a Binary value named Order. You sure you want to get into all this?

NOTE: When you delete in Regedit, they will not be in the Recycle Bin, they are gone. There is no UNDO in Regedit. Export the key before making changes or deletions, that way you can just double click the reg file and put it back like it was. On the toolbar, go to Registry\Export Registry File.
Good luck!

 

OK thank you very much . That is the way I will do it. I always strore everything in another file so if I do foul up I can uninstall the rest and reinstall . Again Thank you

 

There's a neat freeware program called MRU Blaster that takes care of the bulk of these things. Download it from http://www.wilderssecurity.com.