How to Remove Recommended Section from Windows 11 Start Menu

The easiest method works for the current user only and requires no administrator privileges. This approach uses Windows 11's native settings to control what appears in the Recommended section.

Right-click the Start button and select Settings, or press Win + I. Navigate to Personalization in the left sidebar, then click Start.

You'll see several toggles that control the Recommended section content:

• Turn off Show recently added apps
• Turn off Show most used apps
• Turn off Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer

Changes apply immediately. If the Recommended section still appears, restart Windows Explorer by opening Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), finding Windows Explorer in the Processes tab, right-clicking it, and selecting Restart.

Before making registry modifications that affect all users, create a backup to restore if something goes wrong. This is crucial when editing HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE keys.

Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter. If prompted by User Account Control, click Yes.

In Registry Editor, click File > Export. Choose a location like your Desktop, name the file start-menu-backup, ensure All is selected under Export range, and click Save.

rem Alternative: Create backup via command line
reg export HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer C:\backup-explorer-policies.reg /y
reg export HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer C:\backup-user-explorer-policies.reg /y

This method uses the Windows Registry to hide the Recommended section for the currently logged-in user only. It's more permanent than the Settings method and works even if Group Policy is unavailable.

Open Registry Editor (Win + R, type regedit, press Enter). Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

If the Explorer key doesn't exist under Windows, you'll need to create it. Right-click on Windows, select New > Key, and name it Explorer.

Right-click in the right pane of the Explorer key, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value HideRecommendedSection.

Double-click the HideRecommendedSection value and set the Value data to 1. Ensure Hexadecimal is selected as the base, then click OK.

Close Registry Editor and restart Windows Explorer using Task Manager or run this command in Command Prompt:

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer.exe

To hide the Recommended section for all users on the system, including new accounts, you need to modify the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive. This requires administrator privileges.

Open an elevated Command Prompt by pressing Win + X and selecting Windows Terminal (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin). Type regedit and press Enter.

Navigate to this registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

If the path doesn't exist, create the missing keys. Right-click on Policies, select New > Key, name it Microsoft. Repeat for Windows and Explorer.

In the Explorer key, create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named HideRecommendedSection and set its value to 1.

Alternatively, you can use this command to add the registry entry directly:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /v HideRecommendedSection /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

If you have Windows 11 Pro, Education, or Enterprise edition, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor for a more official approach. This method is not available on Windows 11 Home edition.

Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter. If you get an error that the file cannot be found, your Windows edition doesn't include Group Policy Editor.

For system-wide changes affecting all users, navigate to:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar

For current user only, navigate to:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar

Look for the policy named Remove Recommended section from Start Menu. Double-click it to open the configuration window.

Select Enabled to hide the Recommended section, then click Apply and OK.

Close Group Policy Editor and either restart Windows Explorer or sign out and back in for the changes to take effect:

gpupdate /force
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer.exe

Even after hiding the Recommended section, Windows may still track recent items in the background. Clear this data to ensure a clean slate and prevent the section from reappearing with cached content.

Open File Explorer and navigate to the following location (replace username with your actual username):

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\TileDataLayer

If you can't see the AppData folder, enable hidden items by clicking View > Show > Hidden items in File Explorer.

Select all files in the TileDataLayer folder and delete them. You may need administrator privileges for some files. If prompted, click Continue or Yes.

Additionally, clear the recent items list through Settings. Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Activity history and click Clear under "Clear activity history".

You can also use PowerShell to clear recent items programmatically:

Remove-Item "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*" -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-Item "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\TileDataLayer\*" -Force -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

For system administrators or users managing multiple computers, create .reg files to automate the process of hiding or restoring the Recommended section.

Open Notepad and create a file to hide the Recommended section for all users:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"HideRecommendedSection"=dword:00000001

Save this as Hide-Recommended-AllUsers.reg. Create another file to restore the section:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"HideRecommendedSection"=-

Save this as Restore-Recommended-AllUsers.reg. The minus sign after the equals sign deletes the registry value.

To apply either file, right-click it and select Merge, or double-click and confirm the UAC prompt. You can also merge registry files silently using command line:

reg import "Hide-Recommended-AllUsers.reg"
reg import "Restore-Recommended-AllUsers.reg"

Windows updates, particularly feature updates like 24H2, may reset your Start Menu customizations. Here's how to ensure your changes persist and troubleshoot common problems.

If the Recommended section reappears after a Windows update, reapply your chosen method. Check if the registry values are still present:

reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /v HideRecommendedSection
reg query "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /v HideRecommendedSection

If Group Policy settings aren't applying, force a policy refresh and restart Explorer:

gpupdate /force /target:computer
gpupdate /force /target:user
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer.exe

For persistent deployment, create a scheduled task that runs at startup to reapply registry settings:

schtasks /create /tn "Hide Start Recommended" /tr "reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer /v HideRecommendedSection /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f" /sc onstart /ru SYSTEM

If you're still seeing some recommended items, ensure all related policies are configured. In Group Policy Editor, also enable:

• Do not keep history of recently opened documents
• Remove Personalized Website Recommendations from the Recommended Section