Classic Shell: Forum

I have set recent programs to be displayed on a submenu (settings > Customize Start Menu > Recent programs, command:recent_programs, track recent items). I have also set the max. # programs to 30 (settings >Main Menu > Max. recent programs: 30). However a week after making these latest changes I still find I only have 12 items in the submenu whereas I expected 30 items. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help.

Maximum recent programs is limited to 20 in Classic Start Menu. Also, they must be started from within the menu to show up in the Recent list.

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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.

Thanks for the tip Gaurav but it doesn't help. If the maximum is 20 then maybe the setup should display an error if I type 30 into the box? Yes, I am starting programs from within the menu, so shouldn't the list be 20 items long? I have changed to settings > Main Menu > Max. recent programs: 20, but only 13 in the list when I run some other programs that aren't currently in the list. When I run a program that isn't in the list, it will then appear in the list, and a less recent program will be removed from the list.

Maybe the programs are pinned to the taskbar? Such programs will not show in the recent list.

Hi Ivo. Thanks for the suggestion but no, the random selection of programs I am running are showing up in the recent list, but they are "displacing" other recent menu items, and the total still remains at 13 instead of 20.

The only other explanation I have is that you are hitting the height limit of the monitor. Are you sure the menu has room to add more items on your screen?

If you switched from Frequent list to the Recent list you must launch 20 programs after you did the change. Till then some of them can be replaced/displaced.

_________________
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.

Thanks Ivo. Only 13 menu items - is only taking up 1/4 or 1/3 of vertical height of monitor.

Thanks Gaurav. I switched at least a week ago so that can't be the cause either. Strange.

Have you changed the order of the list in any way for example, added a minus sign before the value to reverse the order? Anyway, you can right click and choose "Clear recent items list". Then launch 20 programs from the All Programs folder and see if they appear.

_________________
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.

Thanks Gaurav. I haven't used a minus sign. Using "Clear recent items list" finally fixed the problem. Thanks so much for all your help. I wonder why the limit is set to 20? Why not 30 or any higher value. I could probably fit 40+ recent items on the list. Also it would seem more intuitive for the "Clear recent items list" context menu item to belong to the "Recent programs" menu item rather than on each of the recent item menu items.

The limit is there because there is also a Frequent program list. Reading the data maintained by Windows about most used programs, extracting their icons and ordering them by frequency of use takes a performance hit as more programs are added.

The "Clear recent items list" verb exists when you right click an item in the list because this list is shown in the Main menu by default. You added it to the submenu.

_________________
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.

Starting with Classic Shell 4.2.5, the limit for recent/frequent apps is raised to 40.

_________________
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.