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.