I thought it was broken but realized the settings I was looking for have
another page with more settings that override the first page! Right click the
"start menu" button then properties, that is the first page with the option
with "store and display a list of recently opened programs", now click
"Customize" next to the option above
with the radio button that says "Start Menu". On that page there is an
option "Start menu size", I had the "Number of recent programs to display:"
at 0. Maybe I did it while drunk or something, but I didn't realize I had it
that way and submitted it as a bug through the "Longhorn Issue Reporting
Tool" program. Maybe these two options will be PLACED TOGETHER by the final
shipping version? That was somewhat frustrating and the answer was only a
page away!

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