Geeknews

The Start menu for Windows XP and Vista automatically displays the user’s most frequently used programs (called a most frequently used list). Only shortcuts to .exe files are displayed in the list.

Have you ever noticed that not every program you access goes into that list on the Start menu? Well one easy answer is that if the program is already pinned to the top of the start menu, it won’t be duplicated on the Start menu. But wait, there’s more!

If any of the following strings are included in the shortcut name, the program is not displayed in the most frequently used list:

-  Documentation
-  Help
-  Install
-  More Info
-  Readme
-  Read me
-  Read First
-  Setup
-  Support
-  What’s New
-  Remove

The preceding list is located in the AddRemoveNames value at the following registry location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ FileAssociation

The following list of programs are also excluded from the most frequently used list, if you’re familiar with Windows and/or a computer geek then most will appear to be obvious:
-  Setup.exe
-  Install.exe
-  Isuninst.exe
-  Unwise.exe
-  Unwise32.exe
-  St5unst.exe
-  Rundll32.exe
-  Msoobe.exe
-  Lnkstub.exe
-  Msascui.exe

The preceding list is located in the AddRemoveApps value at the following registry location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ FileAssociation

Programs can also be registered to be excluded from the most frequently used list by creating the following NoStartPage string value:

(The REG_SZ string value must be empty or blank) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ Applications\ <Appname.exe>

The following programs have the preceding setting by default:
-  Explorer.exe
-  Icwconn1.exe
-  Inoculan.exe
-  Mobsync.exe
-  Navwnt.exe
-  Realmon.exe
-  Sndvol32.exe