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Vista (SP1) Start Menu now unable to display recently opened programs

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wpcoe

Technical User
May 17, 2006
40
TH
If I <right-click> on the task bar, click on "Properties," and select the "Start Menu" tab, the "Store and display a list of recently opened programs" box is unchecked. If I check it and click OK, the setting doesn't "stick". When I return to the Start Menu tab, the box is unchecked.

If I click on "Customize" on the "Start Menu" tab, the "Start menu size" control is greyed out.

Now, if this gives you a hint of where to look for a solution:

Just before this Start Menu madness started, I went to Control Panel > Programs and Features > "Turn Windows features on or off" and added a check-mark in front of Games, which had not been previously installed.

After that, I went to "Customize" on the "Start Menu" tab to select "display as a link" for Games.

Poof! My list of recently opened programs disappeared, and from that point on, I've been unable to re-enable it.

Any solutions, ideas, hints on how to proceed to re-enable the list of recently opened programs on the Start menu?
 
One initial thought just to check is are you running as an admin or as a limited user?

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me
 
I'm running as admin. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
It seems to be in the registry at:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced in the D_Word Start_ShowRecentDocs

I didn't extensively test, but I found mine to be at 0 and setting this value to 1 seems to empty my recent document list, but the list is still there. (Maybe a logoff / logon cycle would be needed to actually remove the list).
 
smah: I hadn't realized "show recent docs" was broken as well! I originally only noticed the "show recently opened programs" was broken.

I changed Start_TrackDocs, Start_TrackProgs and Start_ShowRecentDocs all from 0 to 1, rebooted, and neither recently opened programs nor recent docs appear on my Start Menu. The check-box for recently opened programs still doesn't "stick," it's cleared the next time I check.

I looked through the D_Words in that branch of the registry and don't see one any other one that looks like it would affect "recently opened programs" -- do you have a key that looks likely to be it? If so, could you post the exact name of the D_Word, please?
 
I guess that I didn't read very closely did I?

All I did was to do a quick search throught the registry for the word recent & look for anything obvious.

still on the recent document thing.... It seems that all the shortcuts are stored in the folder %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent[/b] and refenced by the 'Recent' string at HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Also possibly noteworthy is HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-.......user_guid\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
and HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-.......user_guid\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

Unfortunately, I didn't see anything that was obviously related to the recent programs list, but this looks promising
 
smah: Not to worry, you opened my eyes to some other oddities which are related to "show recent docs," as well.

When I went in to check on the registry settings in your and linney's replies, I found that the Start_TrackDocs, and Start_ShowRecentDocs settings were not "sticking" in the registry, either. <sigh>

The %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent is empty.

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders has a string value "Recent" with the correct path to the directory mentioned in the previous paragraph (but, of course, the directory is empty.)

(I had typed a long reply to you and linney, but it wouldn't preview or post, so I'm going to try breaking it into several smaller chunks....)
 
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-.......\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced was basically the same list of string values as in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced so I changed Start_TrackDocs, Start_TrackProgs and Start_ShowRecentDocs all from 0 to 1 there, as well.

My "StartMenuInit" DWORD was already set as "3" per the "windows-vista-forgets-recent-programs-list" web page.

 
linney: Going to the first link you provided, shell:recent shows correctly as
C:\Users\wpcoe\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
, with a special (i.e. not the standard plain yellow folder) icon.

I'm perhaps confused by the second link you provided. My
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileAssociation > AddRemoveNames
value is the
entire list (Documentation;Help;Install; etc). Shoud I delete those values? I got the impression from the sentence below the bolded "More Information" that I should see a list of program shortcuts in this key, but I don't.

There is also a statement:

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
 
EVERY program listed there has an empty/blank REG_SZ string. Does that exclude them from populating the "recent" list???

Now, beyond all the above, I noticed another quirk: see attached "recent-programs.gif" file: there is no check box for displaying the recent documents. All that is there is the check box for displaying recent programs, and the check-box doesn't stay checked...
 
Here's the attached .gif file that wouldn't post above:

recent-programs.gif
 
PS: Based on an idea I read online, I also ran sfc (System File Checker) and it found no errors.
 
Can you logon as another user (or create one) and see if that different user has similar problems?

If it does NOT, then maybe you have a corrupted profile?

Fix a corrupted user profile


If you are worried about what should be in the Registry at all the locations you have mentioned, it is easy enough to locate a working machine (friends or colleagues) and see what should be there.

Are you using any third party software that is protecting your privacy and removing surfing tracks etc?
 
Well, I rolled back my system to Sept 5 via System Restore, exported some Start Menu-related keys that seemed like likely candidates, undid the System Restore and applied the keys: My Start Menu now has a couple items on it, although it won't add any more, and the height is now the previous height (tall enough for 21 items).

I'm leaving at 0315 tomorrow morning for a trip that will have me out of the country until next month, so I'm done fiddling with this for now. When I get back, I'm probably just going to re-install Vista again. I just reinstalled it earlier this month, so it's slightly irritating...

PS: I laughed when I read your reasonable suggestion to locate a working machine: I don't know anybody else who runs Vista! Hahaha. The computers at work were just updated from a mix of Windows 95 and Windows 2000 to Windows XP.
 
I just created a new user, and it appears my user profile was corrupted, as displaying recent docs and recent apps both work as advertised for the new user.

I read the procedure to copy all my old settings to the new user profile, but I need to create yet a *third* user profile to do it, but I might just succumb to temptation and curiosity and do it.

I'm really wondering: if I transfer my user settings and files to the new user, will I be importing the corrupted settings? <shrug>

If I *can* transfer all my settings/files to the new user, can I then delete my current username, reboot, and then create "new" user using my old name, and transfer the settings back? I'm kinda fond of my user name.

Not sure if I'll have time today to try this before I leave on my trip. If/when I do, I'll report back with the results. Otherwise, thanks to Linney and Smah for the educational journey through the bowels of Vista! :)
 
I don't think it will copy any corruption across because you are creating "new" rather than copying registry details across.

What you said about returning to your old username seems feasible, but if you want to save yourself a bit of work why not call the new user "oldusername1"?

283111 - Logon Name Does Not Match Name in Task Manager or Under Documents and Settings Folder
 
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