Mark from Hurricane WV writes:
I just brought a new HP laptop with Windows 8 on. Is there away to have apps that I’ve been using on a regular basis show up in the start menu like it does in Windows 7?
Answer:
Your recently used applications should automatically show up in the third set of application tiles. If they are not showing up you can change the settings to keep track of recently opened programs.
To enable recently used programs from the Windows 8 interface click on Desktop. Right-click on a blank area of the taskbar on the bottom of the screen and click Properties. Click on the Jump Lists tab and make sure there is a check mark in the “Store recently opened programs” box and click Apply then click OK.
Your recent programs should now be shown. If you want to restore the classic start menu to Windows 8 instead of using the new interface I, highly recommend downloading Classic Shell. You can read a review of this fantastic free utility by clicking here.
-Tim
Those are pinned programs that are automatically put there when you first install them, not frequently used programs. Frequently used programs feature is only available in Start Menu and is not available on Windows 8 without installing a Start menu.