Windows 7: How do I stop it?

I have this very frustrating issue going-on with my start menu. Lets say I open a program and then open the start menu, then the program icon is now there and making the start menu longer. How do I stop it from automatically pinning the icon?
As you can see in the picture, I had just cleaned-out some of the icons but you can see the start menu's size was extended due to the auto-pinning of the programs, how do I stop my computer from doing this?

Hello there, right click the taskbar.. click on properties.

Go to "start menu" tab and untick both options there, apply and accept, then you wont have programs pinning themselves into the start menu..

Of course you could go to Customize on that same tab and the final 2 options gives you an adjustable list of how many programs would you like to see pinned on the start menu, modify that value, apply and accept.

There you go

I think your looking for this my friend.

Right click the taskbar > properties (not the pinned items) and then go to the start menu tab and un-check the two boxes shown

Recent Programs - Turn On or Off

Recent Items - Turn On or Off