Disappearing Jump Lists in Windows 10

If you don't know what 'jump lists' are, they are a right-click list of files linked from a programme pinned to your task bar that we can select and shortcut to. They are great for items that you use regularly, as they are available right on our desktops. So if we have Word pinned to our task bar, then a right-click on the Word icon will open all the Word shortcuts that we have permanently pinned, in addition to those that we have opened recently, up to a fixed number. Windows default number is 12.

Over time I have expanded my jump list files to 25 per software item pinned to my taskbar. The software apps that I use this many files for are File Explorer, Access, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Publisher, Adobe Acrobat, Notepad, Outlook, and Calibre. Most have about 15 files 'pinned', with the remaining links being projects I am currently working on. These turn over regularly. The exception is File Explorer, where most of the 25 are pinned items: folders I access regularly.

Collectively these jump lists are very, very useful. They are very handy for both navigating to recently opened folders, for files which I just had open, and want to go back to, or for files which I use very regularly. These lists save me a lot of time, and so increase my productivity.

However, with a Windows 365 update recently, my jump lists were all cut down to 12. This meant that effectively I lost 60% of my efficiency in one fell swoop. Worse, many of the recently popular links were the ones to get wiped out.

A Google search soon found me a solution. Burgess (31 December 2018) explained how to restore the overall number from 10 back to 25, as follows:

• Do a full system back up
• Then go to:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

• Right-click on Advanced. Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the value:

• JumpListItems_Maximum

• Double-click on the JumpListItems_Maximum key you created. Change the Value data to the number of jump list items you want. In my case, this was 25.
• Then close Registry Editor.

That's it. The next time Windows 365 updates, I will be alert for it reverting to the default number of 12.


Sam

• Reference: Burgess, B. (31 December 2018). How to Increase the Number of Jump List Items on Windows 10. https://www.groovypost.com/howto/increase-the-number-of-jump-list-items-on-windows-10/