Jump Lists - Reset and Clear All Items

How to Reset and Clear All Items in Windows 7 Jump Lists​

   Information

This will show you how to completely reset and clear specific or all items in the Start Menu and Taskbar jump lists in Windows 7 to start fresh again.

This will only affect your currently logged in user account and no other users on the computer.

   Note

On a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, the Jump List of an application may disappear permanently when you use the application to open or save a new item. This issue occurs when there are 999 items in the Jump List already.

EXAMPLE: Start Menu Jump Lists Before and Reset
NOTE: You will need to click or hover on the arrow (if available) to the far right to see the Start Menu Recent or Pinned program's jump list.

EXAMPLE: Taskbar Jump Lists Before and Reset
NOTE: You will need to right click on the taskbar icons to see their jump list.

OPTION ONE

To Only Remove a Specific Item in a Jump List

1. Open the program's jump list, right click on a unpinned item that you want to remove, and click on Remove from this list. (see screenshot below)

2. Repeat step 1 for any other item you wish to remove from this or any other program's jump list.

OPTION TWO

To Reset and Clear All Jump Lists Automatically with a BAT File

1. Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and save it to your desktop.
Reset_Recent_Jump_List_Items.bat

Download


2. Click or double click on the downloaded BAT file to open and run it.

3. If prompted, click on Run.
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

4. You will now see a quick flash as the BAT file runs and restarts explorer.

5. Your jump lists have been reset and cleared to be empty now. It may take a day or two afterwards before the jump lists repopulate.

OPTION THREE

To Reset and Clear All Jump Lists in a Command Prompt

1. Open a command prompt.

2. In the command prompt, "Copy and Paste" (or type) the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)

del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\*

3. In the command prompt, "Copy and Paste" (or type) the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)

del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations\*

4. Close the command prompt.

5. Log off and on, or restart the computer to fully apply.

6. Your jump lists have been reset and cleared to be empty now. It may take a day or two afterwards before the jump lists repopulate.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Backup and Restore Jump Lists in Windows 7
• How to Reset and Clear All Pinned Items on the Taskbar in Windows 7
• How to Reset and Clear All Taskbar Toolbars in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Pin or Unpin Items in Windows 7 Jump Lists
• How to Enable or Disable Pinning and Unpinning of Items in Windows 7 Jump Lists
• How to Open and Use Windows 7 Start Menu and Taskbar Jump Lists
• How to Turn Recent Items On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Turn Recent Programs On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Recent Programs in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Recent Items in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Change the Number of Recent Items to Display in Windows 7 Jump Lists
• How to Create Custom Jump Lists in Windows 7
• How to Clear Recent Items and Documents on Exit of Windows 7
• How to Clear Recent Items List in Windows 7

 

[derekimo]

Works great Shawn, Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Derek.

 

[Merlin2000]

Worked for me after a simple restart! My recent items were not displaying, despite being turned on, this fixed it for me

 

[Brink]

That's great new Merlin. Thank you for posting back with your results.

 

[periboob]

Thanks Brink! I was adjusting to using the Jump lists, but Notepad would not cooperate. Its recent list did not populate. Still not getting some 3rd party apps to maintain a list, but I am working though it, and learning on the way. Seems that Notepad++ for example, does not add to its jumplist when a document is opened from the context-menu item that NP++ adds at install. But if I add it to the "open with" choices, and use that, it works.

More to learn about. But anyway, your Reset procedure encouraged me to keep poking at it. Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Sounds encouraging Peri. You might also report this to the creator of Notepad++ to see if they may be able to address it in their next version release.

 

[periboob]

I will dig around for signs of interest, but they may not be too motivated. NP++ has had a functionality equal to the jump-lists for quite a while. Rather than remembering what it has opened lately, you just close the app the documents are not really closed. When the app re-opens, it restores tabs for all documents that were not explicitly closed in the last session. Somewhat like the session-saving tools in web browsers. It seems likely that there are other apps that are not integrated with the new features though.

It would be nice to have consistency of function, but it may be a while as the jump-list function is not as simple as associating an extension with an app. My primary interest is more understanding of how the jump-lists work, as this looks like an interesting area.

---Added:---
and now NP++ is working! Notepad started updating its jumplist right after I did your "Reset" process, but maybe NP++ needed a Windows shutdown/re-start?

The Jumplist feature gets more interesting as I get into it. It is different enough to be confusing as to what it is really doing, like: are the files in the hidden folders really "there" or is it just a junction/symlink? Or, at what part of the file "opening" does a does a document get added to the list? But the ability to, say, store a specific search (e.g. "date modified yesterday") is very promising. May cause me to re-think my whole way of finding my stuff.

 

[Monsoon]

Works great, thanks!

Saved me from having to make another thread about this.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Monsoon.

 

[Ciara]

Wow thats fast !, thank you for the great tutorial Shawn works brilliant

Ciara ... X

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Ciara. Thank you.

 

[O8h7w]

Works as advertised, however I did find that you don't really need to reboot - restarting explorer.exe will do.

 

[pjd]

Hi,

I ran the batch file three days ago, I've shutdown, restarted or logged-off/on several times since - and the Jump lists are NOT getting repopulated, yet the MRU lists in Word, PDF xChange, Irfan View etc, are intact.

What I would like is this :

to have the Jump Lists populate as documents are opened, and have them cleared when I shutdown, restart or log-off, except for the items I explicitly pin to the Jump List, which would persist until I explicitly remove them.

Is this possible.

thanks pjd

 

[Brink]

Hello pjd,

You could use the tutorial below to set Windows to clear recent items on exit.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8176-clear-recent-items-documents-exit-windows-7-a.html


Double check to see if you have a Recent Items folder at the location below.

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows

If not, and you have a Recent folder instead, then do what's in the blue note box at the top of the tutorial below to see if it helps.

In addition, double check using the same tutorial below to make sure that you have recent items turned on.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2013-recent-items-turn-off.html

 

[zydrius32]

Hey, could I revive this thread? I‘ve a related problem which I wasn‘t able to resolve for hours .

 

[Brink]

Hello Zydrius,

What problem are you having?

 

[zydrius32]

Thank you for responding . I thought a little bit and drew a conclusion that it would be better to create a separate thread as my problem is only partly related to the problem you‘re talking about in your tutorial. Also, this shall catch more attention from other people who may provide a working solution. Here‘s the link.

 

[Brink]

 

[JediKnight]

Win10 rollback broke my jump lists, this post fixed it!

Hey thanks a lot for this solution, it worked for me!

I had done a rollback from Windows 10 to Windows 7 Pro and that had somehow broken the application-specific jump lists. Am glad I stumbled upon this post!