Start Menu - clean Recommended Area of icons ?

So I've done a fair bit of searching and come to the conclusion that without 3rd Party software it is not possible to remove or hide the Recommended Area of the Windows 11 Start Menu.

According to numerous posts these 3 options when set to off should keep the Recommended Area clear of icons:

Show Recently Added Apps
Show Most Used Apps
Show Recently Opened Items in Start, Jump Lists, and file explorer

I currently have all three options off, and I have forcably set them in Group Policy/registry, but my start menu persists in populating the area with recently added icons.

So instead of going down the path of trying to hide/remove the Recommended area as thats now been restricted to Windows 11 SE, is there a different approach to this I haven't discovered?

For example:
Could the icons be cleared up upon every logon with a script?
Is there a scheduled task that activates as soon as I go online or install some software that decides it's going to put icons in the recommended area?
What might the trigger be for Windows deciding that it's going to show the icons, perhaps I could stop that from running.

I found a useful post explaining a great way to generate a custom Start Menu Layout by copying the start2.bin file (as the XML method has been removed).
Is there something in the same area that could be deleted for the Recommended Area?

After a fresh install of 22H2 if I do nothing the area stays completely clear. As soon as I connect to the Internet or Install just 1 piece of software Offline, the area becomes populated. And especially annoying is the dreaded 'Get Started' app which is a security nightmare, but a discussion for another topic.

This is a vanilla Pro 22H2 build on test equipment with nothing special installed, except during my testing to try and find a way round this issue.

Yes I could right click and 'remove from list', but I don't fancy doing that on 100s and 100s of computers. I'm attempting to create a clean as possible image ready for deployment. 3rd party is not an option here.

Many Thanks

Hello,

You can use the method in the tutorial below to clear the Start Menu recommended section, and make it stay that way.

Thank you, I was missing two from that list:

Start_IrisRecommendations
&
HideRecommendedPersonalizedSites

But unfortunately I still have the same effect.
I quickly did a clean install and after applying all those registry entries, I installed a piece of Software, but sadly the new software appeared with the tag Recently Added

One thing that has just occured to me, I have not activated Windows.
Now I know with Win 10, the personalisation restrictions could be set in Group Policy or the Registry and you got the desired effect.
Is it possible that Windows 11 now blocks some of these Personalisation settings even if set correctly in GP/Reg?

Just to confirm, did you turn this off below?

Yes, so I have the following Reg Entries:
The ECHOs may not be correct as I haven't tidied all that up yet.

Looks like you missing this line below to delete for recent apps in case it's there:

REG.EXE DELETE "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /v HideRecentlyAddedApps /f

Brink said:

Looks like you missing this line below to delete for recent apps in case it's there:

REG.EXE DELETE "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /v HideRecentlyAddedApps /f

Click to expand...

Would HKLM not override HKCU? Or is it that you need both?

In this case, you would need both to be sure.

Thanks I will give that a go!
Though on the page: Add or Remove Recently Added apps on Start Menu in Windows 11 Tutorial
At section 3 Disable; the example suggests that HKCU is being deleted in favour of HKLM.

Annoyingly I've left the office and will be back on Tue to test.

Thanks again!

Correct. The command deletes HKCU to make that policy isn't there to only use HKLM.

Sorry I'd originally misunderstood the intentions of deleting HKCU. I see where you're coming from now.


So with regards to HideRecentlyAddedApps I've tried two ways here:

• Setting both HKLM & HKCU to 1
• Setting HKLM to 1 & deleting the HKCU

I also checked that after a vanilla install of 22H2 there was no HKCU being generated.

However, in both cases I still see applications in the Recommended Area section of the Start Menu

Go ahead and post a screenshot showing this to see if anything may stand out.

Sure!

So there's a screenshot showing the initial appearance of the the Start Menu after clicking the button, another showing all entries within the More button of the Recommended area and System Info to confirm exact version of Windows.

Thanks

Odd. I must admit that I'm not sure why those are still showing after disabling everything.

Do they stay removed if you right click and click on "Remove from list"?

Just for information this is a shot of my Start menu with no icons in the Recommended:

Brink said:

Do they stay removed if you right click and click on "Remove from list"?

Click to expand...

I've not had a test machine up for long enough yet to know.

I'll be continuing with other aspects of the build so I'll keep an eye on it and see what it's behaviour is over more time.

Thanks for the assistance. I'll be sure to update should I discover anything.

Berton said:

Just for information this is a shot of my Start menu with no icons in the Recommended:

View attachment 71535

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reference - I've yet to see that


Just to add to my screenshots, attached is how the Personalisation > Start settings appear.
I've now activated Windows hoping that would solve it, however, it has not.

Can you remove/ reset all registry entries you have changed concerning the Start Menu then show another screen grab of your Settings/Personalisation/Start options?
These are mine on Win11 22h2 version 22621.2283.


And the Start Menu Recommended section.



No registry alterations, no 3rd party customisation, the section stays like this regardless of installing apps, opening/ creating files etc.

DigitalGoat said:

Can you remove/ reset all registry entries you have changed concerning the Start Menu then show another screen grab of your Settings/Personalisation/Start options?
These are mine on Win11 22h2 version 22621.2283.

View attachment 71541
And the Start Menu Recommended section.

View attachment 71542

No registry alterations, no 3rd party customisation, the section stays like this regardless of installing apps, opening/ creating files etc.

Click to expand...

Ok you've touched on something here!

I went back to Windows 11 Vanilla + Activated + 1 Local Admin Account
I ran the following two scenarios: (to be clear I wiped after each scenario)

Scenario 1:

1. I manually set those options in Personalised > Start
   This worked and I saw the text 'To Show your recent files and new apps, turn them on in Settings.'
2. I then installed applications and rebooted several times.
   The message in the Recommended area did not change from above.
3. I then added all the registry entries from message #5 above only and did a few more reboots
   The Recommended area message stayed the same.

Scenario 2:

1. I set only the registry entries from message #5 above
   The Recommended area note still says: 'Apps will appear here as you use the system' (or words to that effect)
2. I then installed some applications and rebooted
   The Recommended area is now populated with icons.

So something is not quite right with the registry entries, one of them is being ignored, either by design, by bug or by implementation error.
Reading the following post, I am not alone in the weirdness of the Recommended Area icons:

If you are doing a Clean Install, you can choose "English (World)" for Currency during the install process and end up with a very clean Start Menu - How to install Windows 11 without Bloatware Apps. Understand that it doesn't remove those apps from my understanding - it just doesn't install them.

After, you will need to go back and change the currency to English for the Microsoft Store and other apps to work correctly.

Recommended solution...