Strange behaviour from Start > Documents (Vista Enterprise)

I am running Vista Enterprise, with Classic Start Menu applied through a
policy. Both "Store and display a list of recently opened files" and "Store
and display a list of recently opened programs" are clicked ON.
If I delete C:\Users\userid\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Office\R ecent; clear a
corresponding network home drive (mapped to F:\) area called Recent Items;
AND I clear down the corresponding Roaming Profile data area on the
HomeProfiles area of the home profiles server - I can then get rid of all the
documents and programs which appear at Start > Documents.
I have 2 questions:
1. After I have cleared this down, to 'clean the slate' as it were, I only
intermittently get the programs I have launched show up in this list - and
not consistently every time.
2. Start>Documents has a line in the box, above which sit 2 folders. What
is it that controls how these folders get referenced here?
Many thanks for any help offered...