Windows 7 start menu jump lists stop working for some applications

I am using Windows 7 Professional x64, and to start programs that I have pinned to the top level of the start menu, I very often use the jump lists of recently opened documents that appear when hovering over the little arrow beside an application name. Recently, the jump list for Wordpad has stopped working. The triangle is displayed, but neither hovering over nor clicking it will make the jump list show. Jump lists for all other applications that I have pinned to the start menu continue to work as they always did. Also, if I start Wordpad and click the menu button, the list of recently opened documents appears fine.

I have found reports of the same issue happening for example for Word 2007, but unfortunately none of these reports were followed up with a solution.

Unpinning Wordpad and repinning it to the start menu did not solve the problem, and neither did changing the number of jump list items to be displayed from 20 to 0 and back to 20 again in the Windows start menu properties. I tried this solution of deleting the files in the AutomatedDestinations folder. After this, jump lists for all applications stop working, but once I open documents with them they re-appear. Wordpad's jump list though stays non-functional. What else can I try?

Solution 1:

There are two locations. AutomaticDestinations contains the history and CustomDestinations custom items for the jump list.

• %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations
• %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

Just delete all files in both folders. It's safe because it's just a cache, which will be recreated. Please note, that you have to relogin, to apply the changes.