replace start menu list of recently used program with file in a folder (win7)

Question

Is it possible to replace the list of recently used programs with a list of all the files in my downloads folder. The reason is I hardly ever use that list as to access programs I either have them pinned to my taskbar or I just search, and some on my desktop. And I download many files every day, so having a list of downloads in the start menu would be much more useful. I know modifying the start menu is possible as the application Start++ does it.

Answer 1

Not that I know of directly, You can put the actual folder in the pinned items location so it expands, but for a folder in another location, you are limited to a shortcut. However, an alternative you may like is the following:

Right click on an empty part of the taskbar and go to Toolbars > New toolbar. Select the location of your Download folder and choose Select Folder.

You should now be able to access all items of the folder with just one click on the arrow.

Lastly, you can actually have the Downloads folder as an item on the right hand side of the Start Menu, For example -

You can do this by right clicking on the Start Orb and click Properties, next click Customize under the Start Menu tab and look for the Downloads section and change it to Display as a menu.