Word Pinned list on taskbar is not working

Question

I have a user who likes to access recent Word and Excel documents directly from the Word or Excel icon pinned to the taskbar but these links are failing.  Word pins are broken. Excel pins work perfect.

Here is my error:  "The item you have selected in unavailable.  It might have been moved, renamed, or removed.  Do you want to remove it from the list?"

GOAL:  Reset recent/pinned items from Word icon on taskbar -OR-  Fix recent/pinned items from Word icon on taskbar

• The Recent/Pinned match what we find inside of Word.  If we start Word, then go to OPEN, then recent and pinned list is there and functional
• If we right click on the task bar icon, we can see the links but they are NOT functional.  SEE PHOTO
• If we delete the links they reappear right after we close then restart Word and are NOT functional.  
• We made a NEW word document file and Pinned it.  The new pin appears in the taskbar but will NOT open.  
• We found a link which said to go to:      "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations"

I deleted all files NO change at all.  Pins in Word no change, Pins on taskbar no change

We would be happy to go to the cache folder delete all pins and recents and start over but we don't know where to look because changes to %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations  folder don't have any effect.  

Answer 1

Hi Jjpadden,

Per your description, it’s not available to open a Word document from Word icon pinned list on taskbar. Given such situation, I have test it on Word 2001 version on Windows 10, it opens as expected. However, if I delete the document, I get the similar error message as yours. May I confirm have you deleted the file?

Since you have tried clear cache folder but it seems doesn’t work, based on my search, the missing registry value data for lnkfile registry key may also cause this issue. So you can try to repair or create might missing keys in registry:

Note: this key defines the behavior of all shortcut or .lnk files on the system. The registry value data in question, IsShortcut, can be accidentally deleted when user tries to hide and remove the arrow overlay icon on shortcuts.

Please try the following steps:

1. Run Registry Editor (regedit.exe), please press the Windows key + R hotkey to open the Run box. Type regedit.exe and press Enter.
2. Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile
3. Right click on the right pane, and select New -> String Value (REG_SZ) to create a new registry value.
4. Name the new registry value as IsShortcut . No value data required.
5. Restart the computer.

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Edit at your own risk.

If the issue still persists, could please provide some information for further understanding:

1. Capture the screenshot of your Word version. (Click File> Account> full Product Informatio n page, please remove your private message.)
2. Does this problem happens on all Word documents or some certain documents?
3. If you get any error message, please send the screenshot to us.
4. Does other applications except Excel also have such issue? 

If there is any misunderstanding, please point out and tell us more details.

Best regards,

Gloria

Answer 2

Hi Jjpadden,

If you still need any assistance please let us know it, we are willing to further investigate and help you.

Have a nice day!

Best regards,

Gloria

Answer 3

Hello Gloria and thank you for your patience.  Followed your steps to create the registry key and found it already existed.  

I have attached that screen shot and also that of the product information.  

Answer 4

I have several versions of Word installed, and the one I prefer is not the latest version. Every time there are Office updates, I experience this problem with the version I use. The solution is to reregister that version to make it the default version. It is not, as far as I can determine, possible to have an accurate jump list for more than one version at a time, however.

To reregister Word, press Windows Key+R to open the Run box. In the box, type the full path to your version of Word, followed by /r. In my case, this is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\winword.exe" /r. The path must be enclosed in quotation marks, with the /r switch outside the quotes. Then press Enter.

Answer 5

Suzanne, 

Your suggestion did not work, but it did point me in a direction that did.  

• I had already tried a repair
• I had already tried an uninstall/reinstall

Your folder path did not match up to the actual path.  I adjusted the actual path to find the "Winword.exe" but that didn't have any effect.  

When I saw the folder path mis-match I figured this must be the right path, so I went looking for an office removal tool.  

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027149/how-to-uninstall-office-automatically

This only found one version.  

I uninstalled it.  

Reinstalled the Office365 version for the user and now everything works.  

So the key was the "SetupProd_OffScrub.exe" removal tool.  

Thank you everyone