Cleaning up the 'Recent Project' list upon startup

[JoeBorgione]

ArcGIS Pro 2.1.2

I've written a script tool that allows the user to delete up to five projects.  The tool works just fine, but of course, those project names still show under "Open a recent project".  Is there a way (yet) to purge that list of empty projects?  

This was posted three years ago: how to remove ArcGIS Pro recent projects from the start menu?   and provides a work around.  From the post checked as correct answer:  "This is something that our application framework team is considering for future release."

Maxim Pastchenko‌

Kory Kramer‌

[KoryKramer]

We'll have to see if Maxim Pastchenko‌ can help with any updates?  There is still no UI for this but as he stated in the referenced post, it can be done through the user.config...  If you go into the user.config, you get more surgical and just delete just the <string>projectname.aprx<string> instead of wiping the whole file... 

[JoeBorgione]

Thanks Kory-  I was hoping for something it easier than that for new users who might be uncomfortable performing open xml surgery....

[KoryKramer]

I understand.  I'd suggest logging an idea on https://community.esri.com/community/arcgis-ideas?sr=search&searchId=3a1b15bd-60a2-4a49-8d87-8b8b3cd...‌ to persist this request and open it up to community voting.

[MaximPastchenko]

Unfortunately this is not yet available.  From the UI we have ability to remove individual project items.   Please submit enhancement request as Kory mentioned.  Thank you  

[JoeBorgione]

Vote early and vote often:

https://community.esri.com/ideas/14808 

[DanPatterson_Retired]

don't forget to vote yourself Joe

[JoeBorgione]

Thanks Dan-  I've never submitted an idea before that I can think of and assumed by posting one was a vote....

[MichaelVolz]

Maybe a project time stamp can be added so you could create a startup script that could delete older projects from the config file using this additional time information about the aprx.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

That might work for some... but my testing project is a couple of years old and has aged gracefully and I wouldn't want some time-stamping administrator cleaning up.

Purging empty projects is one thing, but overzealous tidying up could lead to disaster.

Besides... the user is the sentient one (usually)