Recent Files/Folders opens a window to display a list of files used within the last 7 days whose extensions match the extension(s) of the selected file(s).

To display a list of recently-used files or folders:

1. Select one or more folders, or one or more files (but not a combination of files and folders).

2. Right-click a selected item and choose Recent Files or Recent Folders from the ShellToys XP menu.

3. The Recent Files window will appear, and after a second or two the list of recently-used files will be shown.

4. If files have been deleted or renamed since their last use, or they were on a removable disk that isn't currently available, their entries will be grayed-out. You can double-click any available item to open it, right-click it to display its context menu, or drag it to the desktop or another window using the right mouse-button to copy/move/create a shortcut to it. (If you drag it to a program's window, the program will try to open it, providing that program supports drag-and-drop.)

With the Recent Files window open (or opened as a stand-alone application from the Start menu) you can run additional searches:

• Choose the number of days the search should cover.

• Prevent unavailable files from being shown in the window by removing the checkmark beside Show missing/unavailable links.

• Create custom file-masks to narrow down the list of filenames found (see the topic about Mask By Type for details of file-masks).

• Click the Go button (or choose File, Go) to run a new search. When you do that, your chosen file-mask will be automatically checked first. If the mask is blank it will be replaced with *.* (to find any file). If the mask contains no dot or asterisk (*), these will be inserted. As a result, this may mess up the mask you wanted to use: to prevent the mask from being altered, hold the Shift key as you click Go.