When you right-click on the Windows 11/10/8/7 taskbar icons, you also see a Jump List, which displays the recently accessed files, tasks, webpages, and items of that program. If you wish to remove these entries, here’s how you can do it.
How to clear Taskbar icons Jump List history in Windows 11
To clear Recent items as well as Pinned items History in Windows 11, open Settings > Personalization > Start.
Turn OFF the switch against Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists and File Explorer.
Thus, to clear the Jump List History, switch the toggle to the Off position.
Clear Taskbar icons Jump List history in Windows 8/7
By default, Windows displays 10 items in the Jump List. If you wish, you can always change this number via the Control Panel > Taskbar and Start Menu item > Start Menu tab > Customize > Configure the value of the number of recent items to display in Jump Lists.
Normally if you wish to clear this jump list history, you can do the following.
Right-click on the start button and select Properties to open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties. Under the Start Menu tab, uncheck Store and display recently opened items in the start menu and the taskbar to disable it. Click Apply. Now check it back again to re-enable jump lists. Click Apply/OK.
This will clear your jump list history and keep it clean.
Where is Jump List History in Windows?
Jump List history is stored in the following location:
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations
Here, you will see a few ‘-ms’ files. If you want to clear all jump list history, go ahead and delete all. But if you want to delete only a particular jump list, open these files in a text editor and see for something that may identify to which taskbar icon it belongs.
I selected one randomly and opened it in Notepad. It turned out to be for SnagIt. So, if I want to delete SnagIt’s jump list history, this is the file I would have to delete.
Sometimes, if a particular Jump List is like that of, say, the Explorer may get corrupted and may stop working, you can follow this step to rebuild the Jump List.
If you don’t use or like them, you can always disable Jump Lists via Taskbar Properties or Group Policy Editor.
TIP: Go here if you find that your Jump List is missing or disappeared permanently in Windows 11/10.
