Ubuntu Guide For Windows Users: Clear And Disable Recent Documents

Beats me why could nt we do it with the third command only…

"…when you do enable Recent Documents, all documents that you accessed when it was disabled, will be visible."

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So you're saying that after applying this tweak, Ubuntu STILL tracks used documents? And all someone needs to do is re-enable it, and a list of all recently opened docs will STILL be there? Is that right? If that is correct, it's worse than doing nothing! It is setting up Ubuntu to track you without leaving any evidence.

This is nuts. There should be an option to disable this anti-privacy "feature" - period. Security (as in privacy) seems to have a very low priority at Ubuntu. This is the type of thing that is immediately obvious to Windows users, and it needs to be fixed.

This is an invaluable article. Every time I put Ubuntu onto a new machine, I come back to this site by googling "disable recent ubuntu windows."

Thank you for putting forth the time and effort to make this available to the public.

Bob, the chattr command makes the file immutable, so it can't be added to. It is not simply hiding things, it is not ADDING things to the file, so privacy works.

So why not just lock the screen when you walk away? That file is in your home directory, and shouldn't be readable to others, and the feature in the menu works for the current user, so…

Thank you very much for this tip. It's work!

But chattr is only for ext2/3/4 file systems, not for RaiserFS or any other.

The easier way, is just to create a directory named ".recently-used.xbel".

mkdir ~/.recently-used.xbel

Regards,

MV

Thanx Alot Simple Fix

Thanks a lot. Nice and simple, and I learnt a little bit in the process!

Really thanks a lot Author. Your writing is clear and simple, hence with quite full details of explanation/tutorial 😀

Really like the explanation part, it's really educating!!

Cheers!!

This is pointless, if all the files you've oppened re-appear when you re-enable it, then it means ubutnu is tracking what files you've opened somewhere else.

All you are doing is putting a bandaid over the problem so no-one can see that you're being tracked. This basically does nothing useful.

What needs to be done is to add a hack or a way to stop ubuntu from saving them _anywhere_

or there is another way - delete the file and create the same one but like directory, not file. works flawlessly 😉

I was looking to make a script that would clear different caches but be able to have Ubuntu still have history if we want, but I am new to scripting and don't have anything together yet.

Clear Recent Documents,
copy .recently-used.xbel to desktop,
((((now this part is for testing reasons as an example:
open a text file and close it, look at recently used to see that it was recorded by gnome.))))

Go delete .recently-used.xbel and replace it with the copy from your desktop and go look at recently used.

Now all I need is to decide where to put the copy of .recently-used.xbel and to figure out how to copy it from the directory I decide to put it in to my home directory through the terminal so I can put that command in the script I am thinking about writing.

I have always had a hard time with English:

and copy it from there to my home directory through the terminal

Just to say "thank you very very much " absolutely great blog I recommend it t all my friends in community,(ubuntu),please never stop , best advice blog yet, thanks a million , D

Here's the .clean_cache bash script i put in my Ubuntu 11.04 $HOME folder:

#!/bin/bash
rm -rf $HOME/.adobe/*
rm -rf $HOME/.dvdcss/*
rm -rf $HOME/.icedtea/*
# rm -rf $HOME/.java/deployment/cache/*
rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/*
rm -rf $HOME/.macromedia/*
rm -rf $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/Cache/*
rm -rf $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/OfflineCache/*
rm -rf $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/startupCache/*
rm -rf $HOME/.thumbnails/*
cp $HOME/.local/share/recently-used_xbel.txt $HOME/.local/share/recently-used.xbel
rm $HOME/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite
zeitgeist-daemon -replace

Here's the recently-used_xbel.txt text i put in my Ubuntu 11.04 $HOME/.local/share folder:

This recently-used_xbel.txt is the original recently-used.xbel that comes installing Ubuntu just renamed as recently-used_xbel.txt

I then go to "Startup Applications" and add $HOME/.clean_cache so at every startup i have recent documents and Firefox cache fully cleaned.

UPDATE:

Here's the .clean_cache bash script i put in my Ubuntu 11.04 $HOME folder:

#!/bin/bash
rm -rf $HOME/.adobe/*
rm -rf $HOME/.dvdcss/*
rm -rf $HOME/.icedtea/*
rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/*
rm -rf $HOME/.macromedia/*
rm -rf $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/Cache/*
rm -rf $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/OfflineCache/*
rm -rf $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/startupCache/*
rm -rf $HOME/.thumbnails/*
rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/recently-used.xbel
touch $HOME/.local/share/recently-used.xbel
rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite
zeitgeist-daemon -replace

I then go to "Startup Applications" and add $HOME/.clean_cache so at every startup i have Recent Documents, Firefox Cache and other Cache places fully cleaned.

To create a folder, all you have to do is follow tthe steps
above, butt then place the icon on top of another.
One feature the Apple TV doees NOT have
is web browsing. Would anyone in their right mind say "Oh, so I guess you're on a diet"if tthey saw you
buying herbal djet tea.