Recent items on Windows 10 Start Menu Jump List not updating

[Peregrine]

Sometime shortly after July 20th (going by install date of games), Steam stopped updating the "Recent" section in the jump list of the start menu. For reference as to what I mean, here are pictures of what it looks like with Classic Shell, vanilla Windows 10 start menu, and the taskbar:

https://imgur.com/a/oDWq3VV

The taskbar is accurate while the others have been stuck. I also installed Steam on another computer and it doesn't add anything to the Recent section in the start menu.

Anyone know a way to fix this?

[Larkas]

I have the same problem, though I'm on Windows 7. Maybe some recent client update broke some needed dependencies?

[Peregrine]

I've diagnosed the issue. Steam's jump lists are stored in:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

It apparently used to update to and draw from:

ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms

But after the change, it now updates the jump list in

d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms

However, while the taskbar uses d356..., the start menu still draws from ec3e....

There are two workarounds, one manual, one automatic. Doing it manually opens up the possibility of having a static list.

Manual

1) Open Explorer and paste this into the address bar:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

2) Make a copy of

d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms

3) If ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms exists, delete it.
4) Rename the copy from step 2 to

ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms

Automatic

1) Open Command Prompt as Administrator (Start Menu > Type in Command Prompt > Right click > Run as administrator).
2) Move to the CustomDestinations directory

CD %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

3) (Optional) Back up the currently used jump list file for safety

COPY d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms.bak

4) (Optional) Back up the old start menu jump list file (if present)

REN ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms.bak

5) Delete the old start menu jump list file (if present)

DEL ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms

6) Create a symbolic link that points the old start menu jump list file to the new one

MKLINK ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms

7) If you want to stop automatic updating, simply delete ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms in either Explorer or command line

(Someone please quote this entire post so I can mark it as the answer.)

[Lord Ocean]

Originally posted by Peregrine:

I've diagnosed the issue. Steam's jump lists are stored in:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

It apparently used to update to and draw from:

ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms

But after the change, it now updates the jump list in

d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms

However, while the taskbar uses d356..., the start menu still draws from ec3e....

There are two workarounds, one manual, one automatic. Doing it manually opens up the possibility of having a static list.

Manual

1) Open Explorer and paste this into the address bar:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

2) Make a copy of

d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms

3) If ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms exists, delete it.
4) Rename the copy from step 2 to

ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms

Automatic

1) Open Command Prompt as Administrator (Start Menu > Type in Command Prompt > Right click > Run as administrator).
2) Move to the CustomDestinations directory

CD %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

3) (Optional) Back up the currently used jump list file for safety

COPY d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms.bak

4) (Optional) Back up the old start menu jump list file (if present)

REN ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms.bak

5) Delete the old start menu jump list file (if present)

DEL ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms

6) Create a symbolic link that points the old start menu jump list file to the new one

MKLINK ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms

7) If you want to stop automatic updating, simply delete ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestinations-ms in either Explorer or command line

(Someone please quote this entire post so I can mark it as the answer.)

[Nu11u5]

This is still an issue 2 years later (with a brand new Windows install). The step to create a symlink to the "d356105fac5527ef.customDestinations-ms" file works great.

[Shodoman]

@peregrine Thank you for making it so easy.

[ZeL]

20 January 2021: Can confirm the issue is still present, and the workaround still works. Thanks @Peregrine

[PingZing]

Thanks a bunch for this! I was able to fix my issue with this information. However, it looks like my Start tile wasn't using

ec3e36af0cdcb3e1.customDestination-ms

Instead, it was using

33b12b9e3701f80f.customDestinations-ms

So I just make a symlink pointing that file to

33b12b9e3701f80f.customDestinations-ms -> d356105fac5527ef.customDestination.ms

and everything worked just fine.

[chrisychris]

workaround posted works as of february 17 2023! Steam icon on start menu was not updating recent game list, steam icon on taskbar updated fine.

only commenting because I've read over a dozen threads and none fixed this issue for me. Thank you very much Peregrine, god amongst men.

[Stellar Remnant]

Inb4 a moderator locks this with the reason "This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion".

Confusion about what, precisely?