Add/Remove Program Last Used Date.

[Jack Gillis]

I just noticed that the Last Used Date shown for programs in the
Add/Remove list does not always agree with what I know to be the case.
For instance, Bridge Baron 14 show as being last used on 3/9/2004. I
just finished using it this morning so it seems like the date should be
today's. The same holds true for many other programs in the list.

Do I misunderstand what the Last Used date indicates?

Thank you very much.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

The "Last Used" info is made of a guess work. See what Raymond Chen [MSFT]
states:

The Old New Thing : How does Add/Remove Programs get the size and other
information?:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx

In order to get the "Last Used" and "Frequency" values, Add/Remove Programs
needs to know the name of the EXE so it can ask the Start menu "Hey, how
often did the user run this program, and when was the last time it
happened?"

Notice that there are no clues in the registration above as to the identity
of this EXE file.

So Add/Remove Programs starts guessing. It goes through all the programs on
your Start menu and compares their names with the display name of the
uninstallable item. It looks for Start menu items which share at least two
words with the words in the DisplayName.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Thank you very much. As I understand it then, Add/Remove gets the info
only if the EXE is run from the start menu. I seldom, if ever, run one
from there for I run my most common ones from shortcuts on the Desktop
and in that case Add/Remove never knows they have run. Is that correct?

Thanks again.

The "Last Used" info is made of a guess work. See what Raymond Chen
[MSFT] states:

The Old New Thing : How does Add/Remove Programs get the size and
other information?:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx

In order to get the "Last Used" and "Frequency" values, Add/Remove
Programs needs to know the name of the EXE so it can ask the Start
menu "Hey, how often did the user run this program, and when was the
last time it happened?"

Notice that there are no clues in the registration above as to the
identity of this EXE file.

So Add/Remove Programs starts guessing. It goes through all the
programs on your Start menu and compares their names with the display
name of the uninstallable item. It looks for Start menu items which
share at least two words with the words in the DisplayName.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

I just noticed that the Last Used Date shown for programs in the
Add/Remove list does not always agree with what I know to be the case.
For instance, Bridge Baron 14 show as being last used on 3/9/2004. I
just finished using it this morning so it seems like the date should
be today's. The same holds true for many other programs in the list.

Do I misunderstand what the Last Used date indicates?

Thank you very much.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Correct! as per Mr. Raymond Chen. However, you can force an update by
deleting this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache

General registry editing warning applies. Be sure to have valid backups
before deleting the key.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Thank you very much. As I understand it then, Add/Remove gets the info
only if the EXE is run from the start menu. I seldom, if ever, run one
from there for I run my most common ones from shortcuts on the Desktop and
in that case Add/Remove never knows they have run. Is that correct?

Thanks again.

The "Last Used" info is made of a guess work. See what Raymond Chen
[MSFT] states:

The Old New Thing : How does Add/Remove Programs get the size and other
information?:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx

In order to get the "Last Used" and "Frequency" values, Add/Remove
Programs needs to know the name of the EXE so it can ask the Start menu
"Hey, how often did the user run this program, and when was the last time
it happened?"

Notice that there are no clues in the registration above as to the
identity of this EXE file.

So Add/Remove Programs starts guessing. It goes through all the programs
on your Start menu and compares their names with the display name of the
uninstallable item. It looks for Start menu items which share at least
two words with the words in the DisplayName.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

I just noticed that the Last Used Date shown for programs in the
Add/Remove list does not always agree with what I know to be the case.
For instance, Bridge Baron 14 show as being last used on 3/9/2004. I
just finished using it this morning so it seems like the date should be
today's. The same holds true for many other programs in the list.

Do I misunderstand what the Last Used date indicates?

Thank you very much.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

This again fetches the info from Start Menu shortcuts (not the Desktop
shortcuts)

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Correct! as per Mr. Raymond Chen. However, you can force an update by
deleting this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache

General registry editing warning applies. Be sure to have valid backups
before deleting the key.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Thank you very much. As I understand it then, Add/Remove gets the info
only if the EXE is run from the start menu. I seldom, if ever, run one
from there for I run my most common ones from shortcuts on the Desktop
and in that case Add/Remove never knows they have run. Is that correct?

Thanks again.

The "Last Used" info is made of a guess work. See what Raymond Chen
[MSFT] states:

The Old New Thing : How does Add/Remove Programs get the size and other
information?:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx

In order to get the "Last Used" and "Frequency" values, Add/Remove
Programs needs to know the name of the EXE so it can ask the Start menu
"Hey, how often did the user run this program, and when was the last
time it happened?"

Notice that there are no clues in the registration above as to the
identity of this EXE file.

So Add/Remove Programs starts guessing. It goes through all the programs
on your Start menu and compares their names with the display name of the
uninstallable item. It looks for Start menu items which share at least
two words with the words in the DisplayName.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


I just noticed that the Last Used Date shown for programs in the
Add/Remove list does not always agree with what I know to be the case.
For instance, Bridge Baron 14 show as being last used on 3/9/2004. I
just finished using it this morning so it seems like the date should be
today's. The same holds true for many other programs in the list.

Do I misunderstand what the Last Used date indicates?

Thank you very much.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Thank you again, Ramesh. I generally don't go into the Registry unless
it is to correct a problem. This is not a problem, just a point of
curiosity so I will leave it alone.

Correct! as per Mr. Raymond Chen. However, you can force an update by
deleting this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache

General registry editing warning applies. Be sure to have valid
backups before deleting the key.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Thank you very much. As I understand it then, Add/Remove gets the
info only if the EXE is run from the start menu. I seldom, if ever,
run one from there for I run my most common ones from shortcuts on
the Desktop and in that case Add/Remove never knows they have run.
Is that correct?

Thanks again.

The "Last Used" info is made of a guess work. See what Raymond Chen
[MSFT] states:

The Old New Thing : How does Add/Remove Programs get the size and
other information?:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx

In order to get the "Last Used" and "Frequency" values, Add/Remove
Programs needs to know the name of the EXE so it can ask the Start
menu "Hey, how often did the user run this program, and when was the
last time it happened?"

Notice that there are no clues in the registration above as to the
identity of this EXE file.

So Add/Remove Programs starts guessing. It goes through all the
programs on your Start menu and compares their names with the
display name of the uninstallable item. It looks for Start menu
items which share at least two words with the words in the
DisplayName.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


I just noticed that the Last Used Date shown for programs in the
Add/Remove list does not always agree with what I know to be the
case. For instance, Bridge Baron 14 show as being last used on
3/9/2004. I just finished using it this morning so it seems like
the date should be today's. The same holds true for many other
programs in the list.

Do I misunderstand what the Last Used date indicates?

Thank you very much.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're welcome Jack.

Good practice...I second that.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Thank you again, Ramesh. I generally don't go into the Registry unless it
is to correct a problem. This is not a problem, just a point of curiosity
so I will leave it alone.

Correct! as per Mr. Raymond Chen. However, you can force an update by
deleting this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache

General registry editing warning applies. Be sure to have valid backups
before deleting the key.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Thank you very much. As I understand it then, Add/Remove gets the info
only if the EXE is run from the start menu. I seldom, if ever, run one
from there for I run my most common ones from shortcuts on the Desktop
and in that case Add/Remove never knows they have run. Is that correct?

Thanks again.

The "Last Used" info is made of a guess work. See what Raymond Chen
[MSFT] states:

The Old New Thing : How does Add/Remove Programs get the size and other
information?:
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/07/09/178342.aspx

In order to get the "Last Used" and "Frequency" values, Add/Remove
Programs needs to know the name of the EXE so it can ask the Start menu
"Hey, how often did the user run this program, and when was the last
time it happened?"

Notice that there are no clues in the registration above as to the
identity of this EXE file.

So Add/Remove Programs starts guessing. It goes through all the
programs on your Start menu and compares their names with the display
name of the uninstallable item. It looks for Start menu items which
share at least two words with the words in the DisplayName.

--
Ramesh, Windows XP MVP
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


I just noticed that the Last Used Date shown for programs in the
Add/Remove list does not always agree with what I know to be the case.
For instance, Bridge Baron 14 show as being last used on 3/9/2004. I
just finished using it this morning so it seems like the date should be
today's. The same holds true for many other programs in the list.

Do I misunderstand what the Last Used date indicates?

Thank you very much.

 

[Uncle John]

Ramesh

That is a great tip. I had always thought that the "use" showed how often
the uninstaller was changed\removed.

I followed your tip and the list is now updated and makes good sense

Congratulations

--
Uncle John

....... you can force an update by

deleting this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Management\ARPCache

"Ramesh, MS-MVP"

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're welcome Uncle John