For Excel: (started in Excel 2000)
Try Tools, Customize, Options (tab),
uncheck Menus show recently used commands first
For your System (started in Windows 2000)
To turn off Personalized Menus, click Start, point to Settings,
click Taskbar & Start Menu, and then ** uncheck ** Use Personalized
Menus on the General tab.
Some people like those options, I think most of those that
like it probably work for Microsoft. I think the intent was to
make bloated menus simpler. Wish they had concentrated on
the options instead, but then that's Excel.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/toolbars.htm#menumissing
The concept spread like wildfire, who knows who started it (Office
development, or Windows development).