Start+Menu+Customize

Start Menu Customize

When you click Start you get an enormous list of programs even before clicking or hovering over All Programs., and you also get a Jump list at the beginning.

Is this what you want ? You can customize it :-

Right click on the Start > Properties > Start Menu > Customize.

At the bottom right-hand there are two boxes.

One for Number of recent Programs to display

And one for Number of recent Programs to display in the Jump lists

Now select how many you want it is as easy as that  