Working with JumpLists in WPF Apps

JumpLists?

JumpLists were introduced with Windows 7 and if it they are implemented right are pretty handy, because it can provide common functionality.

A real world example:

JumpLists with .NET

In pre .NET 4.0 times there was a Windows7API Code Pack available to access the JumpLists APIs of Windows and many older blogposts reference it, but since .NET 4.0 is out the JumpList APIs are part of the PresentationFramework.dll. So, you don’t need any other library - at least not for the stuff that I want to show you here.

JumpLists & Windows Vista

A warning for everyone that still have to support Windows Vista: .NET 4.0 is supported on Windows Vista, but the JumpLists were introduced with Windows 7. If you are trying to create a JumpList or touch the JumpList APIs your app will crash with a NotSupportedException.

Creating JumpLists via XAML

Small warning: If you try this on Windows Vista, your app will just crash…

JumpLists are registred per application and the easiest way to create a (static) JumpList is via XAML in the App.xaml:

<Application x:Class="Jumplist_Sample.App"
            xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
            xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
            StartupUri="MainWindow.xaml">
    <Application.Resources>
        
    </Application.Resources>
    <JumpList.JumpList>
        <JumpList ShowRecentCategory="True"
                ShowFrequentCategory="True"
                
                JumpItemsRejected="JumpList_JumpItemsRejected"
                JumpItemsRemovedByUser="JumpList_JumpItemsRemovedByUser">
            
            <JumpTask Title="Notepad" 
                    Description="Open Notepad." 
                    ApplicationPath="C:\Windows\notepad.exe"
                    IconResourcePath="C:\Windows\notepad.exe"/>
            <JumpTask Title="Read Me" 
                    Description="Open readme.txt in Notepad." 
                    ApplicationPath="C:\Windows\notepad.exe"
                    IconResourcePath="C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll"
                    IconResourceIndex="14"
                    WorkingDirectory="C:\Users\Public\Documents"
                    Arguments="readme.txt"/>
        </JumpList>
    </JumpList.JumpList>
</Application>

Creating JumpLists via Code

The “coding” JumpList API is a bit odd to use, but still easy to understand:

var jt = new JumpTask
{
    ApplicationPath = "C:\\Windows\\notepad.exe",
    Arguments = "readme.txt",
    Title = "Recent Entry for Notepad",
    CustomCategory = "Dummy"
};

JumpList.AddToRecentCategory(jt);



var jt2 = new JumpTask
{
    ApplicationPath = "C:\\Windows\\notepad.exe",
    Arguments = "readme.txt",
    Title = "Code Entry for Notepad",
    CustomCategory = "Dummy"
};

var currentJumplist = JumpList.GetJumpList(App.Current);
currentJumplist.JumpItems.Add(jt2);
currentJumplist.Apply();

The “Apply()” call is needed, otherwise the new JumpItem will not be added. As you can see, you can create new JumpList entries, add (and I think you could also remove items) from the default recent category. Besides JumpTasks there is JumpPath, which just contains a link.

In the XAML Part I also hooked up some events, so your application can get notified when a user pins something or removes something which you might want to handle.

Result

Oh… and of course: Windows 10 still supports JumpLists and there are rumors that even UWP apps will somehow support JumpLists.

A good read was this blogpost (and it also contains information about other Windows 7 “Taskbar”-enhancements which are still valid for Windows 10).

Hope this helps!

The code is also available on GitHub.