Classic Shell: Forum

Sorry if this has been discussed before, the search didn't return anything relevant.

1. I would like to be able to disallow some programs from appearing in the list of frequently used applications. I just don't want to see some programs, like calculator for example, in this list, and now I'm forced to manually remove such applications every time I use them.

What's more, Classic Start Menu started to show me Far Manager link in this list. Far Manager is pinned to taskbar and I never start it from the menu, but now it just hangs there for no reason at all. So again, I'd like to exclude it from the list for all (right now, if I manually remove it from the list, my taskbar pinned link becomes corrupted and unusable).

2. The second feature I'd like to request is the ablility to manually set the number of runs for a frequently used applications. In Win XP, I used "XP Run Count Editor" application, which allowed me to set the order of the programs in the menu once and for all, so the application links would not get swapped after each call for them.

Thank you.

First check which list you are using by opening Classic Start Menu settings -> Main Menu tab - whether it's the Recent list or Frequent list. The Frequent list should not show shortcuts which are pinned to the Taskbar.

• To permanently hide a program from the Classic Start Menu's Frequent list, use this "NoStartPage" method: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284198.

• Some programs won't hide with "NoStartPage" method (some new desktop app shortcuts use AppUserModelIDs). To permanently hide these or Modern app shortcuts from the Frequent list, use this method: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378459(v=vs.85).aspx If you need help hiding a program that uses AppUserModelIDs, feel free to ask here if the MSDN documentation is too complex and I will elaborate.

The data for the Frequently used programs list is managed by Windows and it is encoded in the Registry. Its format has changed from Windows XP so editing with third party programs to edit the Run count is unsupported and may not work at all. The Frequent list is an automatically populated list. Above it is the Pinned area where you are supposed to put any shortcuts that you know you use frequently and reorder them as you want. Pinned shortcuts are static so their position will always be fixed.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Yes, I am using Frequent programs list. And it has started showing the icon pinned to taskbar a couple of days ago, which was kind of frustrating )

But thank you, NoStartPage method did the trick. I've read that it was not working under Windows 7, so I didn't even bother to give it a try.

And I thought that CSM uses its own list for frequent programs, with its own counters. Maybe it's because the CSM and Windows native lists show somewhat different set of shortcuts.

So, ok. Thank you for the answer. It has helped )

Classic Shell's Recent list is its own. The Frequent list is based on data maintained by Windows of the most often used apps, it will be slightly different from the Windows 7 Start Menu, but mostly similar.

Windows 7's Start Menu doesn't support NoStartPage for EXEs, thankfully Classic Start Menu does.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.