How to Keep a Program From Appearing in the Most Frequently Used Programs section of the Start Menu

Windows XP has a handy feature that causes your most frequently used programs to be displayed in a special section of the Start menu so you can find and launch them quickly. But what if you don't want a particular program to be displayed there? You can edit the registry to keep it from happening. Here's how:

  1. Open your favorite registry editor.
  2. Navigate to the following key:
    HKEY CLASSES ROOT\Applications\[program name] (for example, the program name would be winword.exe for Microsoft Word).
  3. Click Edit | New | String value.
  4. Name the new string value NoStartPage. Leave the value empty.
  5. Exit the registry editor.

 

You'll need to restart the computer before the new setting will be applied.

 

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