Recently used Programs in the XP-Style Start Menu

[CSpannos]

Hey everyone,

I'm running XP and would like to know where the list of recently used programs in the XP-style start menu is located. Is there a directory of these shortcuts somewhere? Or are all these items entered in the registry somehow?

The reason I ask is that I would like to set up a batch file that clears this list easier than having to go through the whole procedure under the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" screen. I could just set the value of the number of programs on the start menu to zero, but I am curious as to how this list is stored anyway.

Thanks in advance,
Kosta

 

[linney]

You could try using "regedit" to search the Registry for keys or values of MRU (Most Recently Used) and see what lists that turns up.

 

[CSpannos]

Well, I 'think' I figured it out.

I used a program called FileMon v4.34 from

http://www.sysinternals.com.

This program monitors and displays filesystem activity. I figured I could see what is being changed when I try to remove one of these shortcuts from the start menu (right-clicking on shortcut and choosing "Remove from this list&quot. It turns out that it looks like this information is stored in "NTUSER.DAT" under "Documents and Settings-->[username]."

Click here -

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/CSpannos/forums/FileMonLog.txt

- to view the log file of the activity. For testing, I removed "Nero - Burning Rom.lnk" from the list in question. If you look towards the bottom of the log, the file "NTUSER.DAT.LOG" is modified before and after references to "Nero - Burning Rom.lnk."

I'm no expert, so I'm not really sure about the results. If anyone has any input, please let me know.

Thanks!
Kosta