Frequently Used Programs Algorithm

from Stardock Forums

I wanted to started off by saying I think Start8 is a great application and I am seriosuly considering it for a corporatewide rollout. 

 

However one of these things I notice that appears to be different from Windows 7 is the frequently used program algorithm that dynamically populates the start menu.  With Start8, the algorithm seems to be very literal.  If you use an application it will soon appear on the start menu, even if you have only used it once or twice.  When that happens, it seems to bump other applications that are on the list often used, just not recently. 

 

Windows 7 seems to apply more of a fuzy logic.  Over time, the frequently used application list seems to populate not only by the applications that were recently used, but by applications that are used the most.  Using an application once or twice does not bump off the list an application you have used 20 times in the last week.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

start8
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

There are various values which are weighted to determine if a shortcut should appear.  On a fairly clean machine there isn't much information so it is possible some applications may switch in and out of the list, but the more apps are used the more they will remain on the list.

The values factored in are how often the application is run, how many times it was switched to and when the last time it was run was.  Start8 will decrease the priority of an application if it has not been used for a period of time even if it has a very high usage count because clearly it isn't being used any more.

We are looking into if this can be improved yet further though.