Recent documents do not show up in Word on taskbar

Question

Keith Davis 25

Recently saved documents do not display in Word on the taskbar. I have to go to the file explorer to open the document.

Ron Barker 2,245 Reputation points

2026-07-25T09:35:11.0233333+00:00

If your Word App is pinned to the taskbar>You should be able to right click on it to show recently opened word documents and you can pin them to it. Otherwise see Charles suggestions.

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Ron Barker 2,245 Reputation points

2026-07-25T09:35:11.0233333+00:00

If your Word App is pinned to the taskbar>You should be able to right click on it to show recently opened word documents and you can pin them to it. Otherwise see Charles suggestions.

Answer 1

Charles Kenyon 170.9K Volunteer Moderator

I do not use that feature so will be of little help in restoring it.

I do have Word on my Taskbar and so will see open documents on hover.

However, simply opening Word, recent documents appear in Backstage when I click on the File button.

Also, File > Open gives access to the Recent files (and folders).

You may find those methods even better.

I generally have Word active when using my computer.

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Answer 2

Keith Davis 25

Microsoft 365 was corrupted and needed to be removed and reinstalled. Problem resolved.

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