Solved Recently Use Programs Missing From Start Menu (Revisited)

[markaz]

I wanted to resize my Start Menu a bit so under Customize in the Start Menu I disabled some of the items that show by default, I changed the number of Recently Used Program from 10 to 5 and I unchecked Use Large Icons. Very straight forward. Since then all recently use programs have vanished:

I have read what I think is every thread on this site regarding this issue and have every tried tweak and tutorial to get the programs to display, including tweaks to the Regristry. Regardles of what I have done, I just can't get the Start Menu to display Recently Used Programs. The only things that appear are those programs that I pinned to the Start Menu.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Berton]

There's a few pages Google Search found that may be of help.
https://www.google.com/search?site=...edr...0...1c.1.64.hp..8.25.2405.0.7uu4fyX3nJc

 

[Ranger4]

Have you tried resetting the Recently Used Programs back to 10 again, to see if that shows some of the Recent programs.

You say you have tweaked the Registry, which is not a good idea unless you have made a back up copy first & you know exactly what you are doing. Tweaking the Registry can cause all sorts of major problems.

I don't have any programs starting except the Windows Operating System & my AV when I start the computer. Having all those programs starting when Windows starts will slow down the start operation.

I have any programs that I need on the Desktop & access them there when I need them & my Browsers are pinned to the Task Bar.

 

[markaz]

Have you tried resetting the Recently Used Programs back to 10 again, to see if that shows some of the Recent programs.

You say you have tweaked the Registry, which is not a good idea unless you have made a back up copy first & you know exactly what you are doing. Tweaking the Registry can cause all sorts of major problems.

I don't have any programs starting except the Windows Operating System & my AV when I start the computer. Having all those programs starting when Windows starts will slow down the start operation.

I have any programs that I need on the Desktop & access them there when I need them & my Browsers are pinned to the Task Bar.

And I agree with you which is why I 1. Create a restore point before changes and 2. Export the key/value before tweaking.

A couple of the pinned items could be removed as I have them set for startup and reside in the systray. But for grins I will remove all and restart becuse my restart times vary between 79 and 115 seconds.

There's a few pages Google Search found that may be of help.
https://www.google.com/search?site=...edr...0...1c.1.64.hp..8.25.2405.0.7uu4fyX3nJc

With regard to the DWORD value "ClearRecentDocsOnExit" it appeared in neither of the three locations you specified. FYI: I notcied that the path included Current Version\Policies\ in each of the three. If this has anything to do with Group Policies I am using the Home Premium version of Win7 and it does not include Group policies.

FYI: The recently used programs will display Disk Defragmenter ONLY after a restart and I ran that program approx a week ago.

 

[Ranger4]

Thanks for getting back. Try removing those items from your start up & see how you go.

 

[markaz]

Thanks for getting back. Try removing those items from your start up & see how you go.

I did and start time is consistently 64-67 seconds now. I know.....it's slow compare to many, many systems and the drive on my laptop is not an SSD. Only three items populate the startup now.

As far as the recently used programs in the start menu goes I've tried even more possible solutions and cannot find one that will allow for repopulation in the start menu. I'll wat for about another day and if someone doesn't have a fix, I will unfortunately resort to a System Restore from 2 weeks ago and then deal with redoing things I've done since then.

Thanks for the replay, @Ranger4.

 

[markaz]

SysRestore

 

[Ranger4]

Thanks for getting back & letting us know you have fixed the problem.