TThere has been discussion about the new quick starter's lack of usefullness and
we have been told that we can't have start open application from it because it
violates some sort of MS guideline, even though other apps do the same thing.

This is what the MS guidelines say:
"Do not *automatically* install an icon in the status notification area just to
provide convenient access to your application's features or properties. Such
convenience icons might be useful for advanced users; however, for typical
users, they only add clutter to a potentially already cluttered area of the
screen. You can include an option for users to display an icon in the taskbar
status notification area, but always configure such an option to be off by default."

Source:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwue/html/ch11a.asp

I think the key point here is that it says that not to "automatically install an
icon ...provide convenient access to your application's features..." We can
install and icon, we just can't do it automatically. Please let's follow the
letter of the guidelines, and and not extrapolate them to remove a useful feature.

Thanks,
Peter