If you are a regular user of the Run command, you will notice that every command that you have ever typed is saved and can be viewed in the dropdown menu when you press the down arrow key.

These show up when you click on the type box and press the first letter of a command.

Having this is useful, as you can quickly get to the command you want. But things can get a bit messy here if you have a lot of commands saved. You might want them removed, or start afresh with a new list of command that are easily available.

This tutorial will address how to delete the Run command history on Windows 11.

Run Panel

Delete Run command history

Run is the one of the more powerful features in Windows. It lets you find and run apps, including less used ones, much faster than you can manually via traditional methods. In fact, you can use the Run dialog box to easily do some heavy lifting if you are power user.

But clearing the history of the Run dialog box becomes a necessity every now and then. Doing that is not easy, for some reason. You can’t just select the entries and hit the Delete key for some reason. Clearing the history requires digging in the Registry Editor.

This is exactly what we will do now.

  1. Open the Run dialog by using the shortcut keys Winkey + R.
    Delete Run Command History Tutorial
  2. Type regedit, and hit Enter.
    Delete Run Command History Tutorial
  3. If you are asked whether you want to allow this app to make changes to your device, click Yes.
  4. Then navigate to the following path, or type it directly in the address bar:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU
    Delete Run Command History Tutorial
  5. Here, you will see different DWORD values like a, b, c, d, etc.
  6. Delete all of them by right-clicking on each one and selecting Delete.
    Delete Run Command History Tutorial
  7. Click Yes if you are asked to confirm.

Make sure you do not delete the (Default) DWORD, as that will mess things up.

The process of making changes in the Registry Editor is risky, and you have to be very careful not to break something that will disturb your system. Backing up the registry and creating a restore point before tinkering is always a good idea.

Conclusion

This is how you can clear the Run command history on Windows 11. There are other programs and junk file cleaners that can be used to delete history. But since this is not something you will do regularly, an occasional trip to the Registry Editor to take out the trash is so worth it.