Find the relation between ".automaticDestinations-ms" and it's file?

Question

Does anyone know (Because on microsoft forums nobody answered me), how can I find what app has which automaticDestinations-ms file in %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations ?

That's the folder where Windows 7 stores its jump lists, and I want to know how to automatically/programmatic find the relation between each file and an application.

At least, even manual I didn't found any pattern, just to look after file extensions in the files, because some programs open files with the same extension (like images), so this method it's not OK for all programs.

Do you have any other idea? Maybe knowing the format of those files?

Thanks.

Answer 1

the GUIDs appear to persist.

I was trying to edit my control panel jumplist - I found where the "Realtek HD audio manager" control-panel-applet-title-string is (using resource hacker on "C:\Windows\System32\RTSnMg64.cpl"), and restored it's original title ("Dell Audio" - 'cause I'm OCD:) but the original pinned Realtek entry is stuck.

A quick filesearch for pinned took me to

C:\Users\Jonny\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned

but I really needed to be @ C:\Users\Jonny\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

If you use something like Nirsoft's Jumplist View you can see the entries etc. Sort by "application ID" column to see jumplists by application. You can even change the monitored folder (advanced options).

I'm going to have to delete and recreate my control panel jumplist (7e4dca80246863e3.automaticDestinations-ms).

TIP: If you're not sure which is which, try pinning a new jumplist-entry to an application. This will appear at the top (if sorted by "record time")

Answer 2

The best way to find out is to sort the files by date modified, then interact with your machine, eg open a file with Powerpoint, look and see what file moved to the top. That is probably the file for Powerpoint, which you can confirm by opening it and looking in it.

Then you could build a table of magic guids, and search for those in the registry to see if there is an obvious key connecting the guid to an application id.