Where are my Recent Places?

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It's always empty... anyone know what's wrong/how to make it remember something

At the moment, I could employ a goldfish to better advantage in remembering
where I put things... :)

Thanks!
 
It's always empty... anyone know what's wrong/how to make it remember something

At the moment, I could employ a goldfish to better advantage in remembering
where I put things... :)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Recent Places? Vista, as previous versions of Windows, tracks recent items.

Where in Vista are you seeing and trying to use Recent Places?
 
Open Notepad, choose Save... in the Navigation pane ("Favorite Links") I have
"Recent Places" - which might be (suggested by looking at the context menu)
related to Recent Items, but it is definitely Recent Places... and I didn't
put it there because I would have no idea how to! (I have put a couple of
items there, but they are fixed paths).

I thought it was a cool idea, but if you haven't even heard of it....!?!?!

BTW - this is Vista HP...

Julian
 
No Brink, I was hoping it would take me to recent places I have saved/opened
things from/to. Context menu says Open,Explore,Clear Recent Items List|Creat
Shortcut, Sort By Name.

No connection to IE AFAIK - it's a standard Save dlog.

Julian
 
Open Notepad, choose Save... in the Navigation pane ("Favorite Links") I have
"Recent Places" - which might be (suggested by looking at the context menu)
related to Recent Items, but it is definitely Recent Places... and I didn't
put it there because I would have no idea how to! (I have put a couple of
items there, but they are fixed paths).

I thought it was a cool idea, but if you haven't even heard of it....!?!?!

BTW - this is Vista HP...

Julian
Click to expand...

Took 3 or 4 times of opening Notepad, clicking on Save and then "more.."
under "favorite links" before I could get Recent Places to show up. It
would appear that this list is tied into history.

History on the surface is a browser trail showing visited websites. However
it shows up in other places within Windows: Start> Run; File> Open; Start>
Recent programs and recent items; and so on. Using Internet Options to
clear History typically clears the browser trail only. But if one moves
into Start Menu Properties> Classic, there is a "clear" button that removes
these other lists tracked by the operating system.

If the "clear" button has not been used, what else could cause this history
to be removed or not gathered? Some ideas: Third party cleanup tools and
third party optimizers claiming to "streamline" by getting rid of "junk";
third party security programs protecting privacy by "covering up tracks" or
removing history.
 
Hi Brink - yes, it looks like that except there is nothing in the right hand
pane... scratch that: clicking on Recent Places has no effect - the
previously selected place remains selected and its contents appear on the
right.
 
Not a bad idea except:

Firefox is my default browser, so I fired up IE7 explicitly and opened a
file on disk - checked that it was there in the history, checked History
settings (20 days, 50MB), didn't quit IE and checked in Notepad's SaveAs and
Open dialogs... Recent Places *does* nothing (I was wrong when I said it was
empty - clicking it doesn't cause any change in the files pane - but see
below)

I don't have any trail cleaners at the moment...

So... I checked the Start Menu properties, and under Privacy I did not have
remember recent files checked... so I checked it, opened a couple of files
(in IE7 and Excel) and although Recent *Items* appears on the start menu it
remains empty... but now clicking on Recent Places *does* cause the files pan
to change... to empty!

*I* am confused!
 
Hi Shawn,

I went, I checked - all as you showed... then I looked again at Recent
Places and voila! Two new places corresponding to Office 2002 saved file
locations...

So... Recent Places is in fact Recent Save Locations - bad labelling, I had
previously tried Opening things in IE/Excel because it didn't qualify itself
properly. And I would conceptually distinguish a Place from an Item... I
might want to remember Places but not specific files (Items), so the Option
should be different. And I think Recent Items remembers things Opened...

Many thanks for helping clarify another Vista muddle:)

It is in fact just what I wanted - except that Office 2002 has it's own
built in Save dlogs and it doesn't help there :( [But I'm not upgrading -
Word 2007 doesn't work the way I want in certain key respects peculiar to me!]

Julian
 
Not a bad idea except:

Firefox is my default browser, so I fired up IE7 explicitly and opened a
file on disk - checked that it was there in the history, checked History
settings (20 days, 50MB), didn't quit IE and checked in Notepad's SaveAs and
Open dialogs... Recent Places *does* nothing (I was wrong when I said it was
empty - clicking it doesn't cause any change in the files pane - but see
below)
Click to expand...

All the other various types of history are tracked regardless of what is
used as the default browser. When I finally get Recent Places to show up,
selecting it changes shows a list of recently accessed folders. One of
these has to be double clicked to place it into the breadcrumb
trail/address bar at the top of the dialog box.

Aside: Although the "recent places" sounds like it should be useful, I'm
not seeing anything helpful in this list. Yes my recent places are listed
but they include things like:
-folders that I unzipped files to: deleted after I moved the contents to
permanent homes
-folders that I downloaded to: generally use one folder for this but on
occasion direct to alternate locations
- random folders that I peeked in for one reason or another
- folders that no longer exist.

28 listings in all. I'm not getting an automatic refresh after deleting
shortcuts for folders that no longer exist.
I don't have any trail cleaners at the moment...
Click to expand...

I believe you but just want to remind that trail cleaners could include
anything from the oddly named program "crap cleaner" to privacy features
within programs like AdAware.
So... I checked the Start Menu properties, and under Privacy I did not have
remember recent files checked... so I checked it, opened a couple of files
(in IE7 and Excel) and although Recent *Items* appears on the start menu it
remains empty... but now clicking on Recent Places *does* cause the files pan
to change... to empty!
Click to expand...

Checking/unchecking files might reset the flags. It will take some time for
the lists to rebuild. I have both items checked in that Privacy area: files
and programs. I unchecked both and the recent places list cleared out as
well as recent programs and recent items. So I checked both again and
started poking around in folders.

Clicking a folder so that its contents were displayed, did not add it to
the list of recent places.

Selecting and opening a file within a folder, added that folder to recent
places.

I now have 2 items in my recent places list - the two folders that I opened
files from while writing this post.
 
So... Recent Places is in fact Recent Save Locations
Click to expand...

Add to that - locations (folders) where files have been opened (possibly a
double click required) by the user.
 
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