Jump List

[Michael]

As I understand, the jump list is the list that pops up when right-click a program button on the Windows 7 taskbar. But, there seems to be a similar jump list when clicking the arrow next to the program name on the Start menu.

So, what are the differences between these two jump lists? I see that the items/entries in the two lists are not same. In fact, since a few weeks ago the recent items did not show up in the jump list of certain programs when accessed from the Start Menu. The jump list for programs on the taskbar is working fine.

[BC_Programmer]

The Start Menu Foldout jumplist is the same jumplist that was last seen when that program was running.

Recent Items are managed by the Windows Shell but don't appear in the start menu foldout unless the application took over management of it's recent items, and/or if that program has registered file associations.

[Michael]

the same jumplist that was last seen when that program was running.

What does that refer to?

Recent Items are managed by the Windows Shell but don't appear in the start menu foldout unless the application took over management of it's recent items, and/or if that program has registered file associations.

The Recent Items were once available for most of the programs in the Start Menu, but no longer available now for some of them. How should I make them available again?   

[BC_Programmer]

What does that refer to?

The last jumplist the program had when it was running. A Jumplist is a property of a running Program; Pinned Start menu and Taskbar buttons will use the last Jumplist the program had available.

The Recent Items were once available for most of the programs in the Start Menu, but no longer available now for some of them. How should I make them available again?

The Start Menu Options may have been changed. (Right-click, Properties, Start Menu Tab, Customize, the number of recent/frequent items may have been set to zero in the start menu).

[Michael]

If I understand you correctly, the Start Menu foldout jump list is supposed to be the same as the one accessed from the taskbar.

However, like I've mentioned earlier, they are not the same in my case.

As for the "number of recent items to display in Jump Lists" in the Start Menu options, they are set to 10, but still they don't show up for some of the programs.

Although I can use a workaround by pinning the programs to the taskbar, but I prefer not to congest my taskbar with too many programs.

[soybean]

If I understand you correctly, the Start Menu foldout jump list is supposed to be the same as the one accessed from the taskbar.

I don't believe that is what BC_Programmer was saying.

However, like I've mentioned earlier, they are not the same in my case.

Not the same in my Win 7 system either.  I'm sure this is normal.

As for the "number of recent items to display in Jump Lists" in the Start Menu options, they are set to 10, but still they don't show up for some of the programs.

Same here.  Can you state some programs for which they do not appear?

[Michael]

I don't believe that is what BC_Programmer was saying.

That's why I'm confused, because when he mentioned "the same jumplist that was last seen when that program was running. " I don't know which jump list he is referring to, because there seems to be two jump lists (start menu and taskbar), and maybe three if we include the one within the program itself.

Not the same in my Win 7 system either.  I'm sure this is normal.

From Microsoft's website, the introduction to Jump List says this:

To open a Jump List, just right-click a program button on the Windows 7 taskbar. (You can also get to Jump Lists by clicking the arrow next to the program name on the Start menu.)

When it is said that we can access the Jump List by two ways, I'll assume the two lists should be the same.

Same here.  Can you state some programs for which they do not appear?

Programs that don't show Recent: CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator.
Programs that show Recent: MS Excel, MS Word, Adobe Acrobat, Notepad.

[BC_Programmer]

That's why I'm confused, because when he mentioned "the same jumplist that was last seen when that program was running. " I don't know which jump list he is referring to, because there seems to be two jump lists (start menu and taskbar), and maybe three if we include the one within the program itself.

-Jump-lists are managed by the Application.
-Applications cannot manage anything if they aren't running
-Pinned Taskbar and Start Menu shortcuts have the last Jump-List that was visible for that program.

Programs that don't show Recent: CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator.

Do you have any non-commercial programs or any other programs that could serve as an example? I don't have either of those Programs. You also provide no Version- Version is important when it comes to support for new OS features such as Jump Lists.

If a Program doesn't support Jump Lists, it's "Jump list" when right-clicking in the task bar will have an Item to launch a second instance (or try to) Close the window, and pin it to the taskbar. That's it- it will not contain Recent Items.

If a Program does not support Jump Lists there will also be no foldout on the Start Menu: eg.



Note that Notepad and Word both have a Foldout Arrow. However Config Tool and Update Lister do not. I know those two programs do not support Jump Lists because I wrote them and they had no need for that feature.

I have an experimental version that has a Jump List of "Update Lister". If I install that, the Start menu looks the same- No Foldout for the Update Lister program.

However, once I run the new version, the new JumpList appears on the Start Menu in a foldout.

That is what I mean when I say that the Jump Lists are the last version thing seen when the Program was Running. Even after installing the new version, since I hadn't run it yet the Pinned Taskbar button and Start Menu Item didn't have a jump list. When I ran it and the new version created a Jump List, it did. If I overwrite that new version with the old version that did not support Jump Lists, the Jump List will remain until I run that old version again, at which point the Jump List will go away.

Basically the Two Jumplists when right-clicking a Pinned Program on the Taskbar and folding out a Pinned Program in the Start Menu will be Identical. The only reason I can think of for specific programs not working would be problems with those applications.

[Michael]

As I've mentioned in my initial posts, the jump lists for these programs (CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator) accessed from Start Menu foldout were working fine all the while until recent weeks. I'm using these programs every day so they should contain the latest recent items.

Below is the comparison for the Jump Lists for Coreldraw as accessed from Start Menu foldout and Taskbar:



If the two lists are supposed to be identical, I think the list should be associated with one particular system file which contains the information. But since the two lists are shown to be different above, I believe the two lists are associated with two different system files instead.

So, could it be the system file that manages the Jump List on Start Menu foldout for that particular program e.g. Coreldraw is somehow corrupted, causing the failure for the program to write to that file with updated data?

[BC_Programmer]

Both of the JumpLists are acquired from data in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

Each folder is the jump-list information for a program.

So the question becomes, "Why do they differ?"

Only reason I can think of would be if a Corel setting had been changed that causes it to empty out the Recent Jumplist Category before it exits.

I suppose you could try to delete the contents of the AutomaticDestinations Folder, too.