Take a look at this for it is very interesting. If any of the following words or phrases is
included in the program's shortcut name, the program will be excluded from the list:
Documentation, Help, Install, More Info, Readme, Read me, Read First, Setup, Support, and
What's New. Additionally, the following executables are excluded from the list: Setup.exe,
Install.exe, Isuninst.exe, Unwise.exe, Unwise32.exe, St5unst.exe, Rundll32.exe,
Explorer.exe, Icwconn1.exe, Inoculan.exe, Mobsync.exe, Navwnt.exe, Realmon.exe, and
Sndvol32.exe.
Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications. Underneath this
key, you'll find a series of subkeys, each representing an application. The primary purpose of
these su-keys is to determine whether the program appears on the Open With dialog box that
appears whenever you try to open an unknown file type. But you can also add a value to any
of the subkeys which will ban programs from appearing on the Most Frequently Used
Programs List.
Look for a subkey that is the executable name of the application you want to ban from the
list; for example, visio.exe for the Visio business illustration program. Once you find the
application's subkey, create a new String value for that subkey, named NoStartPage. Leave
the value blank. Exit the Registry. You might have to reboot for the setting to take effect and
the program to be banned from the list.
Change the Number of Programs That Appear on the List
By default, the Most Frequently Used Programs List has room for six programs, but you can
change that default and have more or fewer programs appear. Right-click the Start button and
choose Properties. Then choose the tab “Start Menu”. Under this tab, choose Start Menu
Customize General. To customize the number of programs to include on the list, edit the
"Number of programs on Start menu" box. You can choose any number between 0 and 30.
