{"id":27399,"date":"2022-08-21T14:20:21","date_gmt":"2022-08-21T08:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=27399"},"modified":"2023-08-09T23:16:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:46:55","slug":"clear-ms-paint-recent-files-mru-windows-11-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/clear-ms-paint-recent-files-mru-windows-11-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear MS Paint Recent Files History in Windows 11\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The MS Paint app maintains a list of the most recently opened files. The list, shown when you click on the File menu, contains the last nine files you opened. This article tells you how to clear the Paint MRU history in Windows 10 and Windows 11.<!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_27401\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27401\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-27401 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mspaint-recent-mru-1.png\" alt=\"clear mspaint recent history windows 10\" width=\"520\" height=\"307\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27401\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Windows 10 Paint &#8211; Recent Files History<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div id=\"toc\">\n<p><strong>Clear Paint MRU History<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#w10\">Instructions for Windows 10<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#cmd1\">Command-line alternative<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#w11\">Instructions for Windows 11<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#reset_mspaint\">Method 1: Reset MS Paint<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#reg_hive_method\">Method 2: Without Resetting MS Paint<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#loadhivecmd\">Command-line alternative<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Clear MS Paint Recent Files History<\/h2>\n<h3><a id=\"w10\"><\/a>Windows 10<\/h3>\n<p>Windows 10 (v21H2) still has the classic MS Paint app, whose MRU history can be cleared via the registry.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Start <code>Regedit.exe<\/code> and go to:\n<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Applets\\Paint\\Recent File List<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27402\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mspaint-recent-mru-0.png\" alt=\"clear mspaint recent history windows 10\/11\" width=\"679\" height=\"321\" \/><\/li>\n<li>To remove selected items from Paint history, in the right pane, delete the corresponding values.<\/li>\n<li>To delete the entire listing (&#8220;File1&#8221; to &#8220;File9&#8221;), right-click &#8220;Recent File List&#8221; and choose Delete.<\/li>\n<li>Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4><a id=\"cmd1\"><\/a>Via Command-line<\/h4>\n<p>To automate the above using command-line, run the following command:<\/p>\n<pre>reg delete \"HKCU\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Applets\\Paint\\Recent File List\" \/va \/f<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Windows 11<\/h3>\n<p>Windows 11 includes the modern Paint app (also known as &#8220;Store app&#8221;) that doesn&#8217;t use the conventional registry to store its settings. Modern apps use a per-application registry hive instead. Also, in the modern Paint app, the Recent entries are listed under a menu option called &#8220;Recent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_27400\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-27400\" style=\"width: 477px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-27400 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mspaint-recent-mru-2-w11.png\" alt=\"clear mspaint recent history windows 11\" width=\"487\" height=\"446\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-27400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Windows 11 Paint (Store app) &#8211; Recent Files History<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To clear the recent files MRU in the modern Paint app, you have two options:<\/p>\n<h4><a id=\"reset_mspaint\"><\/a>Option 1: Reset the Paint app<\/h4>\n<div class=\"rp\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/reset-app-settings-windows-10\/\">How to Reset or Repair a Windows 10\/11 App When it Fails to Work<\/a><\/div>\n<ol>\n<li>Open Settings \u2192 Apps \u2192 Apps &amp; Features.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: inherit;\">Scroll down until you see &#8220;Paint&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: inherit;\">Click on the settings button (shown with three dots) and click Advanced options.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: inherit;\">In the resulting screen, click Reset.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6338 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/icotip.gif\" alt=\"tips bulb icon\" width=\"34\" height=\"34\" \/><em>If you&#8217;re not fond of the modern Paint app, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/get-windows-10-classic-paint-in-windows-11\/\">get back the Windows 10 Classic Paint<\/a> on Windows 11.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it. The Recent files history, as well as your customizations, are cleared in the modern Paint app. Resetting an app to clear the recent MRU history is overkill, though. That&#8217;s why I have provided another method below.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4><a id=\"reg_hive_method\"><\/a>Option 2: Clear Paint app MRU without Resetting the app<\/h4>\n<p>As said earlier, modern apps use per-application registry hives, instead of storing data in conventional registry hives. You can clear the modern Paint app&#8217;s history by loading the application hive using Regedit.exe or Reg.exe and clearing the MRU entries manually.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Close all instances of Paint. And make sure <code>mspaint.exe<\/code> is not running\/suspended state. If Paint is running, this method won&#8217;t work, as Paint will repopulate the recent files history from memory.<\/li>\n<li>Open Settings \u2192 Apps \u2192 Apps &amp; Features.<\/li>\n<li>Scroll down until you see \u201cPaint\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Click on the settings button (shown with three dots) and click Advanced options.<\/li>\n<li>Click &#8220;Terminate&#8221; to close the MS Paint process(es) if it&#8217;s running.<\/li>\n<li>Start the Registry Editor (<code>regedit.exe<\/code>)<\/li>\n<li>Select <code>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE<\/code><\/li>\n<li>From the File menu, click &#8220;Load Hive&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Select the following application hive in the browse dialog:\n<pre>\"%LocalAppData%\\Packages\\Microsoft.Paint_8wekyb3d8bbwe\\SystemAppData\\Helium\\User.dat\"<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Type a name for the loaded Hive &#8212; e.g., <code>PaintApp<\/code><\/li>\n<li>Go to the following branch &#8211; assuming that you used &#8220;<code>PaintApp<\/code>&#8221; as the name for the loaded hive.\n<pre>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\<strong>PaintApp<\/strong>\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Applets\\Paint\\Recent File List<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mspaint-recent-mru-w11.png\" alt=\"clear mspaint recent history windows 10\/11 - hive\" width=\"768\" height=\"397\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Delete all the entries from <code>File1<\/code> to <code>File9<\/code>. Or you may clear items selectively.<\/li>\n<li>Select the &#8220;PaintApp&#8221; key.<\/li>\n<li>From the File menu, click Unload Hive&#8230;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27403\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mspaint-recent-mru-w11-unload-hive.png\" alt=\"clear mspaint recent history windows 10\/11 - hive\" width=\"224\" height=\"171\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Close Regedit.exe<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Open the Paint app and check if the recent files history is cleared.<\/p>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4><a id=\"loadhivecmd\"><\/a>Using command-line\/Batch<\/h4>\n<p>To automate &#8220;Option 2&#8221; via command-line, run these commands from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/open-elevated-command-prompt-windows\/\"><strong>admin<\/strong> Command Prompt<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27406\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mspaint-recent-mru-w11-load-hive-cmd.png\" alt=\"clear mspaint recent history windows 10\/11 - hive\" width=\"714\" height=\"315\" \/><\/p>\n<pre>TASKKILL \/F \/IM mspaint.exe \/T\r\nREG LOAD HKLM\\PaintApp \"%LocalAppData%\\Packages\\Microsoft.Paint_8wekyb3d8bbwe\\SystemAppData\\Helium\\User.dat\"\r\nREG DELETE \"HKLM\\PaintApp\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Applets\\Paint\\Recent File List\" \/va \/f\r\nREG UNLOAD HKLM\\PaintApp<\/pre>\n<p>Start the Paint app now. The &#8220;Recent&#8221; submenu should be grayed out as there are no recent entries to display!<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/mspaint-recent-mru-w11-cleared.png\" alt=\"clear mspaint recent history windows 10\/11 - hive\" width=\"299\" height=\"258\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>I hope the above tips were useful! Let&#8217;s know your comments. The methods listed in the article were last tested on Windows 10 21H2 and Windows 11 21H2 systems.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The MS Paint app maintains a list of the most recently opened files. The list, shown when you click on the File menu, contains the last nine files you opened. This article tells you how to clear the Paint MRU history in Windows 10 and Windows 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,869],"tags":[441],"class_list":["post-27399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","category-windows-11","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":77554,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/mspaint-uninstall-reinstall-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":27399,"position":0},"title":"How to Uninstall and Reinstall MSPaint in Windows 10","author":"Ramesh","date":"January 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"If Microsoft Paint is missing in your Windows 10 computer, you can reinstall it using Windows Features or DISM. Note that the information in this article doesn't work in Windows 11. It's because Windows 11 ships with the Store version of Paint. RELATED: How to Get Windows 10 Classic Paint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19535,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/unable-to-create-new-document-wordpad-mspaint\/","url_meta":{"origin":27399,"position":1},"title":"WordPad\/Paint &#8220;Unable to create new document&#8221; Error","author":"Ramesh","date":"October 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When you start WordPad or Microsoft Paint on a Windows 10 computer, the error \"Unable to create new document\" occurs and the program doesn't launch. The error occurs whether you launch WordPad by running wordpad.exe or write.exe. Workaround There are two wordpad.exe and mspaint.exe executables in a Windows 10 x64\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"uninstall wordpad optional features","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wordpad-uninstall-features.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wordpad-uninstall-features.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wordpad-uninstall-features.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wordpad-uninstall-features.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26837,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/get-windows-10-classic-paint-in-windows-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":27399,"position":2},"title":"How to Get Windows 10 Classic Paint in Windows 11","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows 11 has got the redesigned and modern (UWP) Paint app that has an updated UI that matches the new visual design of Windows 11. The modern Paint app\u2019s new design includes rounded corners, Mica, and more.\u00a0It has a new toolbar with updated icon designs, a rounded color palette, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 11&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 11","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-11\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Classic Windows 10 Paint listed in Default Apps Windows 11","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/w11-mspaint-classic-default-apps.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/w11-mspaint-classic-default-apps.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/w11-mspaint-classic-default-apps.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28625,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/edit-with-paint-right-click-menu-windows-11\/","url_meta":{"origin":27399,"position":3},"title":"How to Add &#8220;Edit with Paint&#8221; Context Menu in Windows 11","author":"Ramesh","date":"September 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows 11 comes with the modern Paint app that doesn't add the \"Edit\" context menu item for images. Note that Windows 10 includes the \"Edit\" right-click menu option by default, which launches the classic Paint app. In this article, we'll see how to add the \"Edit\" option to the right-click\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 11&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 11","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-11\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"Edit with Paint\" option in Windows 11","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/edit-with-paint-windows-11.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3220,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/reset-wordpad-notepad-settings-defaults\/","url_meta":{"origin":27399,"position":4},"title":"How to Reset Notepad and WordPad to Default","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If you've changed the default font settings and other options in WordPad or Notepad and want to revert back to Windows default values, this post tells you how to do that. Reset Notepad settings If you've altered the default Notepad font or encoding (using the iDefaultEncoding registry value), the margin,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"reset notepad store app","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/notepad-uwp-app-reset.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":75522,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/paint-3d-missing-open-with-default-apps\/","url_meta":{"origin":27399,"position":5},"title":"Paint 3D missing in Open With and Default Apps","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"After updating Paint 3D to version 6.2405.19017.0, Paint 3D may be missing in the Open With dialog and Default apps. The ms-paint: protocol now opens the standard Paint app instead of Paint 3D. Also, the Edit with Paint 3D context menu doesn't work correctly or it launches the regular Paint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"paint 3d missing open with","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/paint-3d-missing-open-with.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/paint-3d-missing-open-with.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/paint-3d-missing-open-with.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}