The default number for recent items listed is 10, but this can be amended from 0 to 30 if you prefer. You can manage the settings of your recent items by a simple Registry Editor tweak or, for those not comfortable with amending the Registry, accessing its properties through the Start Menu.
Registry Tweak:
Navigate to Start, type regedit in the search box and press enter.
Scroll down to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies
Right click Policies and select New-Key. Name the new key Explorer.
In the Explorer key, right click and select New – DWord (32-bit value). Name it MaxRecentDocs.
Double click MaxRecentDocs and change the Base setting from Hexadecimal to Decimal. For the Value data, enter in the amount of recent items you want shown (in our case, we put 5).
Exit out of Registry Editor and restart your computer for changes to take effect.
Amend Start Menu properties:
Navigate to Start Menu and right click anywhere except your profile picture. Select Properties.
The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears. In the Start Menu tab, select the Customize button.
On the bottom of the Customize Start Menu dialog box, you can amend the number of recent items to display (range from 0 – 30). For our example, we change the number to 5 and click OK to continue.
You are returned to the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. Click OK.
Now when you click on Start, since we amended the number of recent items to display 5, only that particular number of recent items will appear (as shown below).