How to add Tasks to Jumplists in .NET 4.0 and Windows 7

Introduction

Windows 7 provides a new taskbar feature for applications called jumplists. They appear, when you right-click on a application icon in the taskbar. By default you see a list of recent files opened and two entries to launch and detach the application.

.NET 4.0 provides a managed API that allows you to easily manipulate the entries in the jumplist.

How to add a Task to the Jumplist

A jumplist is nothing more than a categorizes list of links to files that can be launched by the user. The links are called JumpTasks. They can be parametrized with a title, description, icon, filepath and command line arguments.

In the following sample I create a new JumpList and add a task to the list that launches the sample application, but with a command line argument. If the application is launched with an argument, it shows a MessageBox instead.

 
public partial class App : Application
{
    protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
    {
 
        if (e.Args.Count() > 0)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("You have the latest version.");
            Shutdown();
        }
 
        JumpTask task = new JumpTask
        {
            Title = "Check for Updates",
            Arguments = "/update",
            Description = "Cheks for Software Updates",
            CustomCategory = "Actions",
            IconResourcePath = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().CodeBase,
            ApplicationPath = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().CodeBase 
        };
 
        JumpList jumpList = new JumpList();
        jumpList.JumpItems.Add(task);
        jumpList.ShowFrequentCategory = false;
        jumpList.ShowRecentCategory = false;
 
        JumpList.SetJumpList(Application.Current, jumpList);
    }
}
 
 

Copyright (c) by Christian Moser, 2011.

 Comments on this article

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Andira Muttakim	Commented on 27.January 2010 is there only work in WPF? how about Form?
Andira Muttakim	Commented on 27.January 2010 is there only work in WPF? how about Form?
Mario Fraiß	Commented on 28.March 2010 It does also work in Windows Forms under a .NET 4.x and Win7 environment.
Martin	Commented on 17.May 2010 Any way you can implement this to standard run time? e.g. Have a command on the list (Red) that changes the background color of the form to Red?
K	Commented on 25.June 2010 can jumplist support custom event like just calling a method inside the owner