Program Does Not Show Up in Windows 7 Recent Programs

Question

I run the program NetBeans all of the time. It used to always show up in my Windows 7 start menu all of the time. I recently reformatted my laptop and my main computer, downloaded the latest version of NetBeans, and now no matter how many times I run it, the program won't show up in the start menu list! I don't want to pin it to the start menu. Any idea what's going on?

Yes, I'm OCD. =]

Answer 1

You can try to reset/clear the list and seeing if it starts showing up after that. To reset the list right click on Start, choose Properties, go to Start menu tab, uncheck Privacy boxes, click OK, then follow the process again and recheck them.

Or, a little less destructive, you could try removing some items by right clicking on them and choosing remove from list. Doing this normally shows the next item that would be there if it were opened a few times more.

Answer 2

I've been trying to achieve this selective filtering feature that Windows XP used to allow control of (via regedit NoStartPage Reg_SZ entries under

HKCR_Applications\appname.exe), tried all sorts (including +as on target exe, even adding to AddRemoveApps 'ban list' @ HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileAssociation\ )

My observations have thus far indicated that all .lnk entries in StartMenu folders will be candidates for the RecentPrograms list...

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs C:\users\

If I run an .exe (from run or even explorer's address{omni:} bar, it won't appear in recent programs.

If I run a Start Menu .lnk via an explorer address bar, it won't appear in recent programs C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\QuickTime\QuickTime Player.lnk

If I run a program via a .lnk via a junction, it won't appear in recent programs (Start->Admin.tools-> _go [C:\Windows\mySysLnks] -> NirLauncher.lnk doesn't appear in recent programs

^ _go @ C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools

If it's not because you're not running a .lnk, or not running a .lnk in 'StartMenu', check the data @

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileAssociation (AddRemoveNames & AddRemoveApps are supposed to be banlists, I think)