Taskbar pinned items

userofwin11 · Dec 2, 2025

A couple of questions:
1. I have Excel pinned to the taskbar and have some spreadsheets pinned into it. Have forgotten how to add and delete these spreadsheets. Please advise.

2. After KB5070311 update on 12/2/2025, I can no longer click on one of the spreadsheets to open it. Get message saying "the item you have selected is unavailable . . .". To open it, have to right click it and then select Open. Any ideas other than reverting to the system state prior to the update.

Thanks!

Spunk · Dec 2, 2025

When you right click a pinned icon on the taskbar, it shows you the most recent files in a Jump List that you accessed through this app.
To remove any files from the Jump list, Right click Excel or any other pinned app on the taskbar, then Right click the recent file you don't want to see and press Remove from List.

userofwin11 said:
the item you have selected is unavailable

If you cannot access a file from the jump list, browse to the location you saved it at. (ie) C:\Users\UserName\Documents or wherever and open it there. You can use Search if you aren't sure where you saved it.
The file name or location it was saved in from the Jump list may have changed.

userofwin11 · Dec 2, 2025

Thanks for your replies. Have resolved all issues but one. For some reason I have 2 items in Excel on the taskbar that I want to remove but can't. They are:
Excel.exe - Shortcut
Unpin from Taskbar

Tried suggestion on Excel.exe, but after loading and unloading it, right clicking it provides a list of actions but "Remove from List " is not listed. Likely because it is not a spreadsheet.
Right clicking on Unpin from Taskbar does nothing.

Stuck!

Spunk · Dec 2, 2025

Again, the files in the list are not pinned to the taskbar, they are shortcuts to the saved location.
Any icon like Excel.exe is a pinned icon shortcut to the app.
If you right click Excel.exe and choose Unpin from Taskbar it should remove it.
If not Right click the Taskbar and choose Task Manager.
Under Processes, Scroll down and Right click the Windows Explorer yellow folder and choose Restart. Close the Task Manager.
This should refresh the Taskbar.
Or you can reboot the computer.
Or you can create a batch file that is listed on this site to restart Explorer. Or using the Command Prompt

Three Ways to Restart or Reset Taskbar on Windows 10/11 - MiniTool Partition Wizard

Here are three ways to restart or reset taskbar on Windows. You can restart or reset your taskbar through Task Manager, a batch file, or cmd.exe.

www.partitionwizard.com

userofwin11 · Dec 3, 2025

Have restarted Explorer and rebooted multiple times. If I right click on excel.exe and chose unpin from taskbar, the entirety of excel is removed from the taskbar, not just the individual item. And if click on Unpin from Taskbar which is in the list with excel.exe, nothing happens; no menu --nothing.

Spunk · Dec 3, 2025

Unpin Excel.exe from the taskbar. This removes Excel from the taskbar
Browse or search for Excel.exe usually in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
right click it and choose Pin to Taskbar. Only Excel shortcut will appear on the taskbar.

userofwin11 · Dec 3, 2025

Spunk said:
Unpin Excel.exe from the taskbar. This removes Excel from the taskbar
Browse or search for Excel.exe usually in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16
right click it and choose Pin to Taskbar. Only Excel shortcut will appear on the taskbar.

Wish that was so. Tried that several times and all the items pinned inside the excel link reappear. They are somehow kinked to Excel somewhere but I can find it.

dacrone · Dec 4, 2025

Post a screenshot of what you’re trying to remove

userofwin11 · Dec 5, 2025

dacrone · Dec 5, 2025

i assumed thats what you were referring to. those arent pinned, they are the jumplist entries.

Win+R to open Run box and execute:

Code:

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

see if you have a file named:

Code:

9839aec31243a928.automaticDestinations-ms

(i've also read that a6d9f392df8b4b74 is the ID that corresponds to Excel... hence why i dont want you to delete it until we know which one)

if so, cut it from there and paste it somewhere else (just dont want you to delete it until we know for sure thats the one)

log out and back in. see if those entries are gone

userofwin11 · Dec 9, 2025

Thanks for sticking in there, but neither of the potential Excel .automaticDestinations-ms files exist. Have been down this road before.
So tried something new. Copied and saved all .automaticDestinations-ms files. Then deleted them. 2 remained. So, changed them to read only and deleted in cmd using "del /f" . . . . . Folder was then totally empty, but when right-clicked on Excel.exe, the last 2 items remained in the list. The first 3 had disappeared.

This tells me that the last 2 links are somewhere else.

Returned the copied and saved files to their destination and again have the original 5 links:

Go figure. The mystery continues.

dacrone · Dec 9, 2025

userofwin11 said:
Thanks for sticking in there, but neither of the potential Excel .automaticDestinations-ms files exist. Have been down this road before.
So tried something new. Copied and saved all .automaticDestinations-ms files. Then deleted them. 2 remained. So, changed them to read only and deleted in cmd using "del /f" . . . . . Folder was then totally empty, but when right-clicked on Excel.exe, the last 2 items remained in the list. The first 3 had disappeared.

This tells me that the last 2 links are somewhere else.

Returned the copied and saved files to their destination and again have the original 5 links:

Go figure. The mystery continues.

judging by the screenshot, you're running office 2007, correct?

try option 5 reg keys here (just read at the top what it clears so you know in case you dont want to run them):

Enable or Disable Recommended Files in Start, Recent Files in File Explorer, and items in Jump Lists in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable show recommended files in Start, recent files in File Explorer, and recent items in Jump Lists for your account or all users in Windows 11. Your recently opened items will show in the Start menu Recommended section, Jump Lists, and File...

www.elevenforum.com

you can also run this .bat Reset/Clear Recent Items

Code:

del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\*

del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations\*

del /F /Q %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations\*

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

start explorer.exe

userofwin11 · Dec 10, 2025

Before just clearing everything, want to play around with some different options. Honestly, want to find out where the last 2 link items on the list live.

dacrone · Dec 10, 2025

userofwin11 said:
Before just clearing everything, want to play around with some different options. Honestly, want to find out where the last 2 link items on the list live.

most likely nowhere. sounds more like corrupted entries to me.

Taskbar pinned items

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