How to know ".automaticDestinations-ms" files to which app relates?

Clear and Manage Windows 7 Jump Lists

To find application associations, open the *.automaticdestinations-ms files in Notepad. You can find file paths to items in the application jump list and figure out which app/jump list the *.automaticdestinations-ms file is associated with.

Note that opening the files in Notepad, that there are (something like) spaces between characters. For example, foo.exe is "f o o . e x e"

Windows 7 Jump Lists are stored in the paths listed in the following short list of filenames that are associated with specific applications:

PATH: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

28c8b86deab549a1.automaticDestinations-ms = IE8 Pinned and Recent a7bd71699cd38d1c.automaticDestinations-ms = Word 2010 Pinned and Recent adecfb853d77462a.automaticDestinations-ms = Word 2007 Pinned and Recent a8c43ef36da523b1.automaticDestinations-ms = Word 2003 Pinned and Recent 1b4dd67f29cb1962.automaticDestinations-ms = Windows Explorer Pinned and Recent 918e0ecb43d17e23.automaticDestinations-ms = Notepad Pinned and Recent d7528034b5bd6f28.automaticDestinations-ms = Windows Live Mail Pinned and Recent c7a4093872176c74.automaticDestinations-ms = Paint Shop Pro Pinned and Recent b91050d8b077a4e8.automaticDestinations-ms = Media Center f5ac5390b9115fdb.automaticDestinations-ms = PowerPoint 2007 23646679aaccfae0.automaticDestinations-ms = Adobe Reader 9 aff2ffdd0862ff5c.automaticDestinations-ms = Visual Studio 2012

PATH: %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations

28c8b86deab549a1.customDestinations-ms = IE8 Frequent & Tasks

The post where I found this list was here.

(Most of that discussion is not very helpful. It was started in June 2009. I pulled this list out from Microsoft MVP, Ronnie Vernon's replies later in the thread – Scroll down to March 10, 2010.)

faef7def55a1d4b.automaticDestinations-ms = VLC Media Player

You can prevent Windows from keeping it's "Recent" file list by deleting the "automaticDestinations-ms" file for the application then creating a directory with that same name. To do this from the Command Line: mkdir faef7def55a1d4b.automaticDestinations-ms

Apps will generally recreate a settings or configuration file that's been manually deleted. Most will also delete and recreate a settings/config file that's been corrupted. Using "mkdir" generally prevents this. The function used to delete a directory is different than the function used to delete a file. Windows won't allow the app to open, write or delete the directory as if it was a file. I have yet to see an app that will figure out that there is a directory with the same name as it's config file then delete the dir and recreate the config file.

This same trick works in a lot of other situations.

here are a few more files and their association with Office applications: fb3b0dbfee58fac8.automaticDestinations-ms = Word 2013 (and Office 365) Pinned and Recent 9839aec31243a928.automaticDestinations-ms = Excel 2013 (and Office 365) Pinned and Recent 9839aec31243a928.automaticDestinations-ms = Excel 2013 Pinned and Recent d00655d2aa12ff6d.automaticDestinations-ms = Powerpoint 2013Office 365 Pinned and Recent 9c7cc110ff56d1bd.automaticDestinations-ms = Powerpoint 2010 Pinned and Recent

This is rather useful when after an upgrade to a new Office version you want to restore the old pinned and recent items: you only need to rename the old version's file to the new file name.

You can read more info about it at https://forensics.wiki/jump_lists/ and the Full List at https://forensics.wiki/list_of_jump_list_ids/