This AutoHotkey (AHKv1) script acts as a Recent InDesign File Manager with built-in features for file integrity checking, version mapping, dynamic previewing, and enhanced file launching.

Core Features
Data Aggregation and Filtering: The script collects a unified list of recently opened Adobe InDesign files (.indd) by reading both the Windows Recent Documents folder and the Adobe MediaBrowser Registry Key. It automatically excludes files that no longer exist on the disk.

Version Identification: For each valid .indd file, the script performs a fast FileRead to extract the InDesign Version (e.g., 20.0, 24.0) from the file's metadata and displays it in a dedicated ListView column.

Progressive Loading: A lightweight Progress Bar GUI appears immediately upon script launch to provide user feedback during the initial, potentially slow, process of reading and parsing the file metadata.

Functionality in the GUI
Dynamic Opening (Open selected & Double-Click): When the user clicks the "Open selected" button or double-clicks a file, the script automatically maps the file's ID Version to the corresponding Adobe InDesign installation year (e.g., Version 20.x maps to InDesign 2025). It then launches the selected file(s) using the correct version of the InDesign executable. A confirmation alert is shown before execution.

Gdip Dynamic Preview: When the "Enable preview" checkbox is checked and a file is selected, the script:

Extracts embedded Base64 thumbnail data from the .indd file.

Uses the included Gdip library to determine the thumbnail's dimensions.

Dynamically resizes and centers the vPreviewImage control to perfectly fit the image while preserving its aspect ratio.

Allows users to browse through multiple extracted thumbnails using Previous and Next buttons.

Context Menu (Right-Click): Right-clicking a file reveals a context menu with two primary actions:

"Reveal file in Explorer": Opens the file's containing folder and highlights the file.

"Open file as Copy": Displays a confirmation message, intended for a workflow that would copy the file before opening (logic is placeholder/demo).

UTF-8/Diacritic Handling: File names are normalized (transliterated) before being used to create temporary JPG preview files, preventing errors with non-ASCII characters (e.g., 'č' or 'á').

David's suggestion is a good one -- just list the BOOK FILE, and don't list the chapter files that it references, since the book file itself serves the same purpose (much more usefully) as the Recent Workspace.

Unfortunately, this still requires maintaining some metadata on the chapter files, since they may be opened individually and not through the book file. The programming required to do this would be better applied to improving the overall functionality of the Recent Workspace itself. So many file management features are missing that the whole panel is little more than just a huge version of the original drop-down recent file list.

We need to MANAGE recent files, sort by date or project or client, honor the file system so files can be organized, handle more than a few dozen files, group by key-words, etc.

I agree that David's solution to the book problem is simpler than what I'm requesting. But file management by project or by client (or anything else if keywords are supported) is a basic need for anyone working with large numbers of files, projects, or clients. So I would be very grateful if David's solution were implemented. But I'd still be in serious need for a really useful Recent Files facility. All it is now is a visually lavish equivalent to the old dropdown list of the last <n> files opened. Useful, yes, but only in a tremdously limited, unimaginative way.

It would certainly help if ID just excluded books accessed via the Book panel, but (a) often one has to access those files outside the Book panel, and ID would have to check to see if a file is part of a book, (b) some files are used both in a book and as stand-alone files, and (c) file management is still desperately needed for organizing clients, projects, etc.

I heartily advocate for a solution to this Book problem, though I propose a simpler solution than "Manage Recent Files List."

I suggest that if a file is opened via the Book document (e.g., Book.indb), then do NOT include that file (chapter) in the Recent File List. Such files are already easy to access—through the Book panel.