Lost Recent Used Programs in Start Button

[shuckthecorn]

I press my Start Button and I have everything in place on right hand side (My Documents, My Pictures, Control Panel, etc.) The left hand side where the default Browser and email program sit, anything else pinned to start menu and the recently used programs are is completely blank. When I go to properties on start button the area where you set default browser and email program are greyed out and when i check them and aply it looks like it works but when you go back in they are greyed out again. How do I bring back to life? I also used my OS disk and did an OS repair from installation and it didn't fix. OS = XP pro