Start Menu ~ most used programs

I've always thought when you started a program there was a counter that probably lived in the registry keeping track of the number of times a particular program had started. With this information the top 4 or 6 or what ever would be shown on the menu.

The other day I mis-moused and moved one of the programs from the "lower" most used menu to the "upper" menu where the programs are permanently listed. When I right clicked the program and removed it from the menu it did exactly what I asked and it was gone. My expectation was that it would return to to "lower" menu... it didn't.

I found that by using the program it eventually got back on the "lower" menu. My assumption was the counter somehow got reset.

THE QUESTION: How is it determined what programs are listed and in what order. If I removed a program from either the upper or lower lists and want to put it back how do I do that. In the case of a program for the lower list how do I do that without losing the "counter? "

Obviously this isn't a high priority thing it's just so I can quit looking inside the tower for some little Rumplestilskin guy with a hammer and chisel tracking my program usage

Thanks,

 

You can control the upper box by pinning/unpinning an application.

The lower box is controlled by a value "Most Recently Used (MRU)" and not by its overall popularity or an execution counter; although Microsoft is not consistent here in registry names:

Item "Windows UserAssist MRUs "

The key where are stored MFU programs (Most Frequently Used) is the following :
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\{75048700-EF1F-11D0-9888-006097DEACF9}]

Test: After logoff-logon, launch a program, then close it, an entry appears in the start menu for this program, after a short delay (1-2 minutes).

To be exhaustive, the MFU programs of the XP start menu are controlled by the following keys :
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist\{5E6AB780-7743-11CF-A12B-00AA004AE837}]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList "=dword:00000000
"NoInstrumentation "=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
; "Start_MinMFU "=dword:0000000a => 10 entries in the menu (default)
; "Start_MinMFU "=dword:00000005 => 5 entries in the menu

You can clear the lower box (and other MRU lists) with freeware such as MRU-Blaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrublaster.html

But I would not bother.

 

Bill, thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for.

If you google MRU (MFU too) there is a plethora of data out there. With this little knowledge I may become dangerous....

Appreicate the help.