diff -r 3530b508df2e Lib/idlelib/EditorWindow.py
--- a/Lib/idlelib/EditorWindow.py	Mon Jan 24 17:28:06 2011 +0100
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/EditorWindow.py	Mon Jan 24 10:20:23 2011 -0800
@@ -798,7 +798,7 @@
         # for each edit window instance, construct the recent files menu
         for instance in self.top.instance_dict:
             menu = instance.recent_files_menu
-            menu.delete(1, END)  # clear, and rebuild:
+            menu.delete(0, END)  # clear, and rebuild:
             for i, file_name in enumerate(rf_list):
                 file_name = file_name.rstrip()  # zap \n
                 # make unicode string to display non-ASCII chars correctly