Windows 10 - Changing the "Show the most used apps" to "On" through Registry/GPO

Question

Enviroment: Windows 10 Enterprise 1803

I am aware that the "Show the most used apps" can be controlled through the "Start Settings" however i am interested in setting this through registry/GPO.

My eventual goal is to have freshly imaged machines have this setting set to "On" at first login and giving them the option to turn it off as required (Hence the hope to deploy a One-Time Registry through Group Policy Preference)

I have tried setting registry key's to control this however the only thing i am able to control is if this key is greyed out or not.

Is anyone aware of a way not using the User Interface to set "Show the most used apps" start menu setting.

Thanks in Advanced

Andrew

Update

Have tried registry key's provided below and am not able to control this via a registry key, after some further searching i came across a reddit post with a user that was having the same issue. He has a Microsoft Premier Support case open which was going to be one of my next steps.

Linking post here for historical refrence, Will update SuperUser post if a resolution is found: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/912wtv/windows_10_registry_or_group_policy_setting/e3c81eo/?context=3

Answer 1

According to my knowledge, there is no such group policy or register setting. The most used app is related to what used recently, and you can only delete the app from the list.

I think that you can disable the most used app list and pin those app you want to the menu.

I will continue research and test, in order to find out if there is any solution or workaround.

---

Update.

Try the following register.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Find the key Start_TrackProgs and double-click on it, if it doesn't exist, just create it.
Name Start_TrackProgs
Type DWORD (32-bit)
Data value 0 (0 uncheck, 1 check)

Re-open the Setting, and the option will be changed.

Hope it can help you!

Answer 2

The registry entry behind the setting "Show most used apps" (in Personalization\Start) is this one:

Named value: Data

Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\CloudStore\Store\Cache\DefaultAccount\$de${be556088-c76f-41bd-809c-ba7ab5f4c3fa}$$windows.data.unifiedtile.startglobalproperties\Current

Data type: REG_BINARY

You can toggle the setting by editing the named value, and it helps to copy/paste the value since you can't really interpret it. To explain: I disable the setting from the GUI, go into the registry, and copy the named value somewhere for reference; then I enable it from the GUI, go back to the registry, and copy that named value to my reference as well. From that point, you can use the corresponding values to disable or enable the setting via editing the registry.

Since it's very hard to understand how this value is composed, it's practically useless for administration; I hope Microsoft changes this sooner than later. There should be a decent and dedicated registry named value behind the setting and there should be a GP policy for it too (analogous to the "Show recently added apps" setting for example).

Ciao!