Start menu: most recent programs - flawed

[terrypin]

I'm trying XP Home's new style Start menu, which offers some potential benefits over the classic style.

I was baffled for some time as to why some programs I'd used were on the list and others weren't. I've finally realised that items only appear here if you start the program in certain ways, such as via the Start Menu or Desktop shortcuts. They *don't* appear when you start via the taskbar's Quick Launch icons. So, in my case at least, the list is far from being my 'most recently used 20 programs'. Pity, because the basic idea is good.

Terry, West Sussex, UK

 

[Qumahlin]

but if you have them alreay on your quick launch bar you wouldn't bother with the start menu anyway correct? thats the purpose of quicklaunch to completely skip the start menu heheh

 

[terrypin]

To Qumahlin
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No, that would be true only if these categories were mutually exclusive, but they're not. For example, I have Word as a Quick Launch icon (it opens Word but not a specific document) but at the moment I also have several other shortcuts to specific Word docs on my desktop. Over time these come and go, depending on my work or leisure projects. I'd like the 'recently used programs' to show *all* my uses of Word. If necessary I could rename any that are ambiguous.

And during a project I might use half a dozen programs. Some would *initially* be started from a wide variety of places (Quick Launch, System Tray, Start Menu, Desktop, File association, other programs, etc). But after a while, providing all of these were showing in my 'recent 20', *that* could become a one-stop shop. Much faster and more convenient. That's what I thought the idea was!

Terry, West Sussex, UK