The Recent files list shown in the Documents option on the Start Menu can get pretty full after a while. You can empty it by going to Start menu, Settings, Taskbar, Start Menu Programs, and clicking the Clear button.  However, that's a bit long-winded.  You can achieve the same with a single double-click.

Open Notepad

Type: echo y|del "d:\Documents and Settings\username\recent\*.*"

Save it as "c:\winnt\docdelete.bat"

You can change the name docdelete, but you must keep the .bat extension.  Also, you must use the double quotes as shown otherwise Notepad will save it as docdelete.bat.txt

You can put a shortcut to this file on your Desktop, in your Start-menu or in your Quick Launch toolbar.

When you double-click the shortcut, a command interpreter window will open, execute the command to empty your recent documents list and then close again.  However, it will happen so fast that you'll barely see it.

If you want this to be run every time Windows starts, you can place a shortcut to this file either in your Start menu, Programs, Startup or in your Registry.

For in the Registry:

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Make a new String value and call it Clear Recent Documents (it doesn’t matter what you call it)

Doubleclick on this String value and give it the value c:\winnt\docdelete.bat

Now the Recent Documents will be deleted every time you start Windows