If Recent and pinned or Favorite items are missing in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint while opening them, follow these instructions to fix the issue.

Update on May 5, 2025: According to a Windows 10 support page (spotted by Windows Latest), the removal of “recent files” app jump lists in Windows 10’s Start menu was confirmed to be a bug caused by ...

I had previously used the "Open Recent" in various Mac OS X programs. However, the rate at which I open files vastly outnumbers the available slot space that the OS provides by default (which is 10).