How to prevent a program from being displayed in the Most Frequently Used Programs list

Windows XP displays a list of most frequently used programs in the Start menu. If you don't want a program to be displayed there, you can prevent it (on a program-by-program basis) by editing the registry. Here's how:

  1. Click Start | Run.
  2. Type the following in the Run box: regedit
  3. In the left pane of the registry editor, navigate to the following key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\
  4. Click Edit | New and select String Value.
  5. Name the new string value NoStartPage
  6. Leave the data value empty.
  7. Close the registry editor.

You can repeat the process for all programs that you want to prevent from appearing in the list. You'll need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

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