Skip to content

Hide most used apps

On this page

Recommendation

Depends

Enable it for privacy and a cleaner Start menu.

You will lose quick access to frequently launched programs.

Main effect
Hiding frequently used apps
FPS and memory
See the research

What changes

Section titled “What changes”

Windows remembers which programs you launch most often and shows them as a list in the Start menu. This setting disables that tracking: the “Most used” section disappears from Start, and the system stops accumulating launch frequency.

The rest of the Start menu is unaffected: the “All apps” list, search and pinned tiles work as before, and any program can be found and launched without the frequency list.

Exceptions and differences

Section titled “Exceptions and differences”

The visible effect depends on the version. In Windows 10, the “Most used” section is a noticeable part of Start, and its disappearance is immediately visible. In Windows 11, there is no such section in Start by default, so the change mainly manifests as the cessation of the launch tracking itself. After the setting is reverted, the list apparently rebuilds from scratch — this detail has not been verified. There is no impact on performance.

How to verify the result

Section titled “How to verify the result”

Open Start: there is no “Most used” section, while searching by app name still finds it.

How to change and revert

Section titled “How to change and revert”

Open Optimization → Customization → Search and assistants → Hide most used apps and enable the setting. Click “Apply” at the bottom of the page; if “Instant apply” is enabled, a separate button is not required. To revert, disable the setting on the same page.

Confirmation

Section titled “Confirmation”

Last verified: 2026-09-20.