Windows 10: "Most used" list (in Start Menu) is problematic

1) I use Word much more often than others in the list. Why is it not displaying?

2) Can I add to the number of apps which are displayed?

:)

 

Most Used list in Start Menu

The new Desktop and the changes to the Start Menu in Windows 10 can be quite a challenge for a user migrating from Windows 7. It is important therefore to customise the displays to suit the way you wish to work and to give easy access to the
programmes you use regularly.



If you use two or three programmes much of the time you may find it convenient to pin programmes to the Taskbar and use Jump Lists. In the first image below you will see a total of 15 programme icons including Excel, Word, Internet Explorer,
and other less known programmes pinned to the Taskbar. It is for you to choose what appears there. What follows next is one way how to do it.



The program files for the principal Office 2010 components are:

Excel = excel.exe

Outlook = outlook.exe

Word = winword.exe



If you need other exe file details please ask.



You can open or run any program e.g., Excel, by selecting the keyboard shortcut
Win+R, type excel.exe and press the ENTER
key. An Excel work sheet opens and an icon is temporarily added to the taskbar, usually at the bottom of the screen. Right click on the icon and select
Pin to taskbar. The next time you want to open Excel you click the icon. If you right click the icon you will see recent Excel files you have opened. You can click any recent file to open the file. If you want to be able to
access a particular Excel file regularly right click the file and select
Pin to this list. The right click options linked to the taskbar icons are known as Jump lists. You can use these procedures with Word, Outlook and many other programmes.



You can customise the Desktop by deciding which panels appear on your Desktop and their position. Click the
three lines 1 icon in the top left corner of the desktop and then click
All apps 2 at the bottom of the left pane.







Click A 3 at the top of the list of programmes beginning with the letter A to get an A to Z index. Click
M to get a list of programmes beginning with the letter
M.







Click Microsoft Office 4 to expand it to see Microsoft Excel 2010. Right click
Microsoft Excel 2010 5 and click
Pin to Start (the drop down menu also offers another way to Pin to Taskbar). An Excel panel appears on your Desktop. If you do not immediately see it, scroll down the screen as far as you can go. It will be
there. You can then drag any icon to an empty space on your screen. If you want to see Excel in the top left of the Desktop. You will need to move the existing item occupying the place to another position on the screen so that the space is vacant. You can
then move Excel there.

 

Most Used list in Start Menu

When I upgraded to Windows 10 one thing I was glad to see the return of was the list of most used programs. In Windows 7 I found that this was my most common way to open programs. I especially liked using the recent documents jump list that would appear
next to each one.

Problem is it doesn't seem to work properly in Windows 10. I've been using Windows 10 since a week or 2 after it was released. In all that time my recent used programs list still only shows half a dozen generic options that I never use, such as 'Get started',
'people' etc'. It never actually shows the programs that I do frequently open from my start menu such as Word and Excel. I would like these in particular to show up in my most used list so that I can us the jump list to quickly get to recent documents that
were opened in those applications. I know I can right click any program in the list and choose to remove it from that list but that doesn't make the programs I actually do use a lot appear in there.

So I guess my main questions.

Firstly is it possible to increase the number of entries in the list since I only have a few entries followed by a lot of blank space.

Secondly, is there a way to force certain applications to appear in the list? Weeks and weeks of frequently opening certain applications via icons in the start menu and on the desktop hasn't made them show up in the most used list.

 

1) You can try resetting the "Most used" apps by turning them off and on (Go to Settings -> Personalisation -> Start); when you next use Word it should appear there.

2) Once you have expanded the size of the window the number of Most used apps increases to 6 but no more.

 

I had Word as a tile...Once I unpinned it from the tiles, it appeared in the "Most used' list.