Workaround to Pin My Computer, Documents, Recycle Bin or Any Folders to Windows 7 TaskBar (Pin to Windows Explorer Alternative)

In Windows 7, user cannot pin a Computer, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Games, Recycle Bin or any folder and drive root to Windows Taskbar directly, with the exception of Control Panel. If user attempts to drag and drop the shortcut to a folder to Task Bar, it can’t be dropped into Taskbar with forbidden icon, or been shown option to “Pin to Windows Explorer” instead. Furthermore, when right click on a folder, there is no right click menu item of “Pin to Taskbar” too.

Pin to Windows Explorer may work for some users, who don’t mind have to right click on Windows Explorer icon in Taskbar, and then select the pinned folder or item on top of the Jump List. For Windows 7 users who want the convenient to instantly open a folder such as My Documents by one-click on Task Bar, use the following trick, which similar to change default opening folder of Windows Explorer, to add the favorite folders to Windows 7 TaskBar.

  1. Right click on Desktop, and select New -> Shortcut.

    Create New Shortcut

  2. Visit list of available Explorer.exe special object switches to determine the shortcut value that should be entered. For example, if you want to pin Computer (or My Computer), then enter the following string as the location of the item:

    %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /E,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

    Location of New Shortcut Item

    Click on Next when done.

  3. Enter a new for the shortcut. For example, Computer.

    Name the New Shortcut

    Click on Finish when done.

  4. A new shortcut will be placed on desktop. Optionally, right click on the shortcut, select Properties. Then click on Change Icon on Shortcut tab to change the icon of the shortcut (which will be used when pinned to Task Bar too).

    Change Icon

    Tip: Most of the default folder related icons are stored inside %windir%\System32\shell32.dll system file.

    Select New Icon

  5. Now, right click on shortcut on desktop, and click on the Pin to Taskbar on right click menu to pin the folder to Windows 7 Taskbar.

    Pin Folder to Taskbar

Folder on Windows 7 Taskbar

Voila, now a folder can be pinned and directly access from Windows 7 Taskbar. To unpin any of these folders, just right click on its button on Taskbar, and select “Unpin this program from taskbar”.


2 Responses to “Workaround to Pin My Computer, Documents, Recycle Bin or Any Folders to Windows 7 TaskBar (Pin to Windows Explorer Alternative)”

  1. Windows 7 Usage Guides, How-To Hacks, Tips and Tricks (Complete List) » Tip and Trick
    October 31st, 2009 02:43
    2

    [...] Workaround to Pin My Computer, Documents, Recycle Bin or Any Folders to Windows 7 TaskBar (Pin to Wi… [...]

  2. Kunal
    August 21st, 2009 08:38
    1

    This is a great article and I was able to pin my Control Panel and Recycle Bin here no problem. My issue was with trying to pin my ‘Downloads’ folder, I was unable to determine the correct syntax for doing so. The path should be C:\Users\Kunal\Downloads, but it looks like the Windows Explorer syntax you have uses %windir% to start in the Windows directory by default. I need something that will let me start in the Users directory instead. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

    Cheers,
    Kunal

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