How do I clear the Run box history in Windows 8?

Question

Since there's no longer a taskbar/start menu Control Panel, how do you clear the history of the Run box in Windows 8?

@MimiEAM I never said there isn't. I said there's no Taskbar/Start Menu Control Panel. — David Pfeffer, Oct 28 '12 at 12:27

Rakib Ansary · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-27T13:58:07.760

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Following are the steps to clear history of the Run box:

Go to the Start screen, and type regedit and open click on regedit to open the Registry Editor
Navigate to the key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU
On the right of the screen, there are keys that contain the recently entered commands on the Run Box. Delete the ones that you want to delete
Log off and Log back on.

That should delete history from the Run menu.

The UI Way to delete History

Type Clear History in the Search box. Then click on Settings on the Charms menu
Finally select Delete History to clear the history

However, that method deletes more than just the search history of Run Box. It also deletes history from other applications like File Explorer.

edited Oct 27 '12 at 13:58

answered Oct 27 '12 at 13:49

Rakib Ansary

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There's really no actual UI way to do this? – David Pfeffer Oct 27 '12 at 13:50
There is actually a UI way to delete history. Please see the edited answer. – Rakib Ansary Oct 27 '12 at 13:58
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It should be accepted, the edit make it worth :) – avirk Oct 27 '12 at 14:09

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 27 '12 at 13:58

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You can use CCleaner to erase the run history.

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answered Oct 27 '12 at 13:58

HackToHell

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I hate "tools", but ccleaner is really good! – davidbaumann Feb 11 '14 at 16:26

Zombo · Answer 3 · 2014-02-16T22:43:28.680

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This did it for me

rundll32 inetcpl.cpl ClearMyTracksByProcess 1

Clear History From the Command Line

edited Feb 16 '14 at 22:43

answered Feb 02 '14 at 04:17

Zombo

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 27 '12 at 13:56

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Just like in Windows 7 the easiest way to do this is using CCleaner.

answered Oct 27 '12 at 13:56

Michael S.

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 11 '13 at 15:35

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Empty the registry key out:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TypedPaths]

This will kill the typed Run history.

edited May 11 '13 at 15:35

slm

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answered May 11 '13 at 13:49

Rune Mariboe

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score -1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 30 '15 at 00:29

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For some reason the run box history is cleared via clearing Internet Explorer history. In IE, press ctrl+shift+del, and clear your history.

answered Mar 30 '15 at 00:29

JamesR

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How do I clear the Run box history in Windows 8?

6 Answers6