Start menu question?

I used to have programs listed on the left side of the start menu. Whenever I would run something it would put an icon on the left side of the start menu. Now there is nothing but blank space. Another thing is the "Run" command does not have any history any more.
What could I have changed to cause this?

 

Those are both History related items, like you needed to be told that.

Anyway, FWIW, I updated my CrapCleaner program to the latest version and it wiped my History items from several areas. The strange part is, it continued to wipe it even when I didn't actually run the program. I had to revert to the older version to escape this bug.

I don't use the one area you mentioned, the left hard Start Menu. That's a list of recently used programs and you can check the settings on that by right-click Start . Properties > Customize > and you'll see the setting on the General rab there. I keep mine on zero since I have such a good memory I don't need that to nag me.