Recent Documents Clears Itself Out

I am annoyed! START>DOCUMENTS does not show my recently used. Constantly on its own the list shows less and less of what I opened. I have nothing cleaning this folder every minute but it seems every minute or hour or few hours I show less documents in there. Only now and then does it get big like 30+ or so but then it shrinks.

For example, I will open 10-15 docs, but it only shows 12. I keep opening docs and it shows those new ones, but replaced them with the older ones. It seems to just remove them from this list on its own.

However, in C:\Documents and Settings\TheDAPPER\Recent, they are all there. Counting 103 right now since it was last cleared out on reboot (5 days ago), but in START>DOCUMENTS it only shows 10. Nothing I opened 12h ago. Only the past few hours.

I have already tried suggestions from:
https://www.techrepublic.com.com/5208-11184-0.html?forumID=47&threadID=194959&start=0

My registry is set up for 30, but like I said, the folder itself has over 100 and START>DOCUMENTS only shows 10 documents I opened in the past hour. Nothing from last night.

Please do not tell me to scan for viruses or spyware or anything 'ware.

Any ideas why this happens? Thank you.