The Windows 7 taskbar is without doubt one of the biggest usability changes in Windows 7. The jumplist feature needs to be mentioned here next to options to pin programs to the taskbar and the thumbnail preview feature when you hover the mouse over a taskbar icon.
Jumplists are shown when you right-click on a taskbar item, regardless of whether it is pinned to the taskbar or only displayed there temporarily because it is open.
Jumplists display various items and links, for example the list of recent documents that have been viewed in Word or the websites that have been accessed in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Some Jumplists on the other hand do not display any information at all which is the case if the developer’s have not yet added jumplist support to their application.
Another feature that is missing is the ability to create custom jumplists. Jumplist Launcher is a free third party application that provides the means to create custom jumplists that act as a program and folder launcher in Windows 7.
The portable application will display an icon in the Windows 7 taskbar upon execution. The main interface can be used to configure the jumplist that is displayed when right-clicking the program’s icon. It is possible to add groups and in those groups files and folders.
Programs can be started with startup parameters. Other customizations include the program’s icon that can be changed and the order of the items that are displayed.
The amount of jumplist items can be changed and the jumplist can be changed into a tasklist which does not make use of categories.
Pinning the program to the taskbar makes it even possible to access those folders and programs without the program itself being open at all making it a very resource friendly program launcher.
Jumplist Launcher can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is only compatible with the Windows 7 operating system (via Tech Yard)