How do you stop Internet Explorer from tracking history of files opened up in OTHER applications?

I do want Internet Explorer to maintain a history for websites I visit (e.g. to enhance performance with caching and provide quick access back to places I've recently visited)

However I have never, ever wanted Internet Explorer to track history for files it didn't even open!

e.g. when I view txt files, xml files, videos, mp3 files, doc files, spreadsheets etc... by "launching" them from elsewhere in Windows (e.g. Windows Exploring (the file manager, not the browser), or from Firefox, Chrome, etc. when they pass along a file to be handled outside the browser).

I'm open to running scripts daily to purge the bogus entries but ideally a one time regedit or similar fix would be preferred.

Solution 1:

Here's how you stop the Recent Documents from being populated (not just hidden from Start Menu): http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/545/

Here's how you stop Media Player from keeping history: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/1195/

Is there somewhere else are you seeing the history of files you've opened besides these? Microsoft Office might keep a separate recent documents history, but you can disable that in preferences.