MATE: how can i switch off "recently used files" and "remember-app-usage"?

Support
6

The following worked for me:
Put the following in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini (create the file if it doesn’t exist):

		[Settings]
		gtk-recent-files-max-age=0
		gtk-recent-files-limit=0

Then, remove the file holding recently-used data:
rm ~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel

The recently-used.xbel file got recreated after deletion with this content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xbel version="1.0"
      xmlns:bookmark="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/desktop-bookmarks"
      xmlns:mime="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"
></xbel>