How to permanently remove programs from the Start Menu

In another post someone asked the question: How to permanently remove/ban programs from the Start Menu Recent List? (Since manually deleting them will only get them back on once the program is started again.) The sole answer gave a suggestion to "switch the feature off". This answer though useful to some is not to me. Those programs which are indeed often used are on the desktop via a shortcut. Those on the start menu, are programs not often used or perhaps only used this week, then not used for 2 months, then used again later once. Therefore, as the reader suggested, to then, after turning the feature off and"add links to the programs you do want there manually" doesn't do it since I may not want them there 'next week' nor do I like the idea of me having to manually add them and manually remove them all the time. In Windows XP there used to be a little Microsoft program called TweakUI (Power Toys) that would do exactly that--controlled which programs could go there and which could not. Considering that TweakUi was originally made for the 1st or 2nd Windows version (before Windows 95) I hesitate to use it again for Windows 7. Does anyone have a suggestion?

You may find this Microsoft Answers forum thread interesting. One possible solution was:

Click the Start button , Control Panel, Personalization, and then Taskbar and Start Menu. Click the Start Menu tab and uncheck the boxes under the Privacy section.

If you do want certain programs to show up on your Start Menu, just right-click on them and choose 'Pin to Start Menu'

Then a Microsoft MVP forum moderator added:

This is more of a sledgehammer procedure, since it disables the recent items on the entire system, including the Start Menu and Taskbar Jumplists.

Source: How to permanently remove a program from start menu - Microsoft Answers

thanks indeed for your help. unfortunately that isnt what i was looking for. I'll give you a more precise ex. On my desktop I have (me not Windows 7 customizing stuff ) created 2 shortcuts. 1 is for rebooting the PC and the other is to shut it down. I have these there so I can do these actions in just one step--a double-click so I don't have to -1-click start , -2- hover the mouse over the shut down button and then -3- click one of the choices. Now every time I use 1 of those shortcuts they appaear on the start menu. In Windpws XP I used Microsoft's Power ToolsTweakUI to solve this exact problem. Since TweakUI is over 10 years old I hesitate to use it on WIndows7 since there is no literature anywhere saying it can be used, and a few other tweaking utilities I have tried have everything under the kitchen sink except this one feature.

Ahh ... I see what you mean. Sorry, I don't have a solution. I think Microsoft designs its operating systems for the average user and not for power users such as yourself. Some tweaks that seem pretty reasonable have been left out. If memory serves, that's how TweakUI for XP came about. Some of the XP developers decided to provide additional programs "not-officially-supported-by-Microsoft".

One suggestion if I may. I tried a couple of the XP tweaks and they did not play nice with Windows 7. I'm guessing there are too many differences in the XP and 7 registries. But if you decide to give TweakUI a go, I'd strongly suggest you have a current system image on an external hard drive (along with the companion system repair disc) just in case.

If it's any help I used TweakUI to remove shortcut arrow overlays and a insert a couple of other things to the right-click contect menu and it performed flawlessly.

Just create a restore point before you start and you should be fine with it.

The problem is the Windows Start Menu. It sucks.

'Recent Items' is subjected to the same Sorting (A-Z) as all other menu's, pays no attention to the sorting set via shellbags, exposes only 'sortbyname', and doesn't sort by recency.

Conversely, the recent programs (Start Menu list under Start Menu pinned programs) lists executables accessed via shortcuts in yourstartmenu folder.

Example: I have ServiWin linked in Admintools, it's also in the Recent Programs list you're talking about, which I'm considering setting to 0 / going to classic shell, it's just so dumb...

I remove from list (serviwin.exe.lnk)

If I run the application directly (not using the start menu .lnk), it doesn't reappear.

If you want visibility of shortcut icons, and don't want the application to appear in StartMenu, you have a couple of options...

The easiest would be a 'shortcut-relocation'. Try this:
Create a customFolder with the shortcuts that you want (restart windows/explorer,empty trash,yadayada) in a safe place.
C:\MyLinks would be perfect, but almost anywhere is possible... just keep it out of c:\users\you\appdata\roaming\microsoft\windows\start menu

To make these shortcuts available as a quicklaunch, right-click a blank spot on the taskbar, select New Taskbar, and choose your CustomLinks folder.

That should work (I just tested with serviwin.exe.lnk copied to MyToolbar @ C:\Users\Jonny\AppData\Roaming\MyToolbar, enabled as taskbar-toolbar... incidentally, you could just use the Quick Launch folder I've just realised!
C:\Users\You\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer


Other Options are reghacks