Excel jump list not updating

Given the number of discussions on the web generally, I am surprised at how few there are here, so I am sorry if I simply missed them. I am using 64-bit Windows 7 and 32-bit Microsoft Office. For a long time I had noticed that the jump list for Excel was not updating in the Start menu. After a lot of research I have made sure that the settings have been made for the lists to actually show, and set the number of documents to show. Jump lists update fine for Word. The internal recent documents in Excel update fine too. However, "Recent documents" in the Start menu doesn't update for Excel files.
I have also gone to the various locations recommended and deleted the files to clear the jump lists. That did the job of clearing the lists, but whereas Word, for example, has built up its list again, Excel is still showing nothing.
I am opening Excel from the Start menu usually, and it makes no difference whether I open a file from a shortcut, double-click in Explorer or from within Excel, the file never appears in the jump list.
I have basically done everything I could find without success. Any ideas gratefully received.

Sometimes things get stuck in the OS and do not operate as designed. But on my system, I can open a blank Excel book, and save it, then it appears in the jump list. I have the default setting, I believe, to save 10 items in the Jump lists and Excel is set to save the 25 most recent documents.

So, why might yours not be working... could it be related to what folder you are saving them in? Possibly the format you are saving them in?

Is there a specific number it is showing in the jump list, and does that ever change to accommodate new books saved?

Are you saved books tied to another utility?

The Excel documents seem to be kept in this key in the registry.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\File MRU

The names are also kept in another area with IBits showing before the name.. I do not know if this is the jumplist or something else.

If your Word jumplist is working correctly, I will assume you do not have something set to remove any histories.

Hi Saltgrass, thanks for the reply. If it works that way, I will respond in your reply.

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

Sometimes things get stuck in the OS and do not operate as designed. But on my system, I can open a blank Excel book, and save it, then it appears in the jump list. I have the default setting, I believe, to save 10 items in the Jump lists and Excel is set to save the 25 most recent documents.

So, why might yours not be working... could it be related to what folder you are saving them in? Possibly the format you are saving them in? I have tried both .xls and .xlsx. The folder is potentially the same folder as the Word documents I am saving that appear in that jump list, but I have saved documents to a whole range of folders.

Is there a specific number it is showing in the jump list, and does that ever change to accommodate new books saved? It never shows any documents.

Are you saved books tied to another utility? Not sure what you mean, but I am fairly sure the answer is no.

The Excel documents seem to be kept in this key in the registry.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\File MRU This is full of entries - about 50, but none of them show in the jump list.

The names are also kept in another area with IBits showing before the name.. I do not know if this is the jumplist or something else. Having searched the registry, no key is found with this string in it on my system.

If your Word jumplist is working correctly, I will assume you do not have something set to remove any histories. As you say, I assume if I did it would remove the others, but I am pretty sure I don't.

Not sure if that helps or takes us back to the beginning, but thanks for helping.

In case this helps, an xls file just appeared in the Recent Items list on the Start menu, but hasn't appeared in the jump list for Excel.

What I meant by "Are you documents tied to other programs" is do you incorporate information from other utilities or documents? Or, is your Excel info linked to other documents.

It seems you have Excel pinned to your Taskbar. I just did that and the same jump lists show on both locations. The Recent documents option in the Start Menu I do not normally use, because it shows whatever. But they are different things and you can set the number of remember items differently for each. But I have enabled it to see if it has any effect.

There are also two folder locations that seem to contain info about the documents. The Excel documents should be in the Excel Workbooks folder.

%userprofile%\recent (or C:\Users\YourUser\recent)

C:\Windows\ShellNew which shows IE icons next to the files, but do not seem to show if you look directly in the folder. I found them by searching for .xlsx, but they do seem to refer back to a Documents folder.

If you check these folders, document listings not being present may help track down the problem. If you have any access messages, that may also be an indication of a problem. I do not have any plain .xls documents on my system, I suppose I will try adding one next to see if that makes any difference.

Thanks for the response. No, I don't have anything linked to the Excel documents - they are all self-contained.

Excel isn't pinned as such, it is just a program I use regularly so it is constantly in the list of programs I use most often in the Start menu. If it works, I am adding a screenshot of my Start menu:



If I search for .xls there is one file in the recent files folder you mention. It is the one that showed up in the recent files list I mentioned. There are non .xlsx files in that folder, even though most of the files I use are .xlsx. The ShellNew folder looks like this:


I think I am right in thinking that Excel 2010 is Excel 14 isn't it? Could that be an indication that the registry settings are wrong? I haven't done a repair of Office yet, maybe that would help.

I notice you do not have a little arrow for the flyout menu next to Excel.. I will try to find out why that might not be showing up.

I have the Excel12.xlsx file on my system and I have only Office 2010 installed. I do not have a Excel9.xlsx file, which might mean you have or had an earlier version installed? If you had an earlier version installed, it might be relevant. And Office 14 is 2010.

I was also thinking about a possible anti-virus connection. I have not seen it before, but there have been times when bad code did strange things.

The arrow only appears if there are documents in a list, so no list, no arrow.
It is a good point about the earlier version. I keep an installation of Office 2003 to retain compatability with some of my customers.
With anti-virus, who knows?

The problem with all these ideas is that nothing in this respect has changed over the period where the jump list stopped working. It was long after Office 2010 was installed, and also long after the current anti-virus software. I personally suspect an update, either of Windows or Office. Excel has always been a bit different to other parts of the Office package - just think of how it handles multiple windows differently.

I am thinking in terms of repairing the Office 2010 installation. If that doesn't work I will possibly uninstall Office 2003, as I haven't actually had to use it for a while. The problem seems to be that the system is not recognising the xlsx format as belonging to Excel from the perspective of the jump lists. That presumably means a registry setting, but not one of the ones mentioned in threads on this subject. When I get a chance I will do that and let you know.

Well, I have done a repair of Office 2010 and, at the moment, the jump list is working for .xls and .xlsx files! If it should prove to be temporary, I will let you know!

It has proven to be temporary!. However, there was an update of Office 2010 yesterday, and it seems to be linked to that, so I shall try another repair when I get a chance (not for a day or two though) and see what happens.