How to Pin My Computer, Recycle Bin & Other Useful Shortcuts to Windows 7 Taskbar

Windows 7 allows you to pin your favorite programs to Taskbar so that you can access them quickly whenever you want. To pin a program to Taskbar you just need to right-click on its shortcut and select "Pin to Taskbar" option:

Here in this tutorial, we'll learn how to pin various useful system shortcuts like Control Panel, My Computer, Recycle Bin, Programs and Features, etc to Windows 7 Taskbar.

So without wasting any time, here we start the tutorial:

1. First you'll need to create a new shortcut. To do this, right-click on Desktop and select "New -> Shortcut":

2. It'll launch "Create Shortcut" wizard. Now you'll need to enter the command to open desired system shortcut. You can use any of following commands to create the desired shortcut:

explorer shell:MyComputerFolder (for My Computer shortcut)
explorer shell:RecycleBinFolder (for Recycle Bin shortcut)
explorer shell:ControlPanelFolder (for Control Panel shortcut)
explorer shell:Administrative Tools (for Administrative Tools shortcut)
explorer shell:ChangeRemoveProgramsFolder (for Programs and Features shortcut)
explorer shell:NetworkPlacesFolder (for Network shortcut)
explorer shell:Favorites (for Favorites shortcut)
explorer shell:Games (for Games shortcut)
explorer shell:Fonts (for Fonts shortcut)
explorer shell:UserProfiles (for Users folder shortcut)
explorer shell:Profile (for your username folder shortcut)
explorer shell:Public (for Public folder shortcut)
explorer shell:My Documents (for Documents shortcut)
explorer shell:Common Documents (for Public Documents shortcut)
explorer shell:My Music (for Music folder shortcut)
explorer shell:CommonMusic (for Public Music folder shortcut)
explorer shell:My Pictures (for Pictures folder shortcut)
explorer shell:CommonPictures (for Public Pictures folder shortcut)
explorer shell:My Video (for Videos folder shortcut)
explorer shell:CommonVideo (for Public Videos folder shortcut)
explorer shell:Downloads (for Downloads folder shortcut)
explorer shell:CommonDownloads (for Public Downloads folder shortcut)

3. After entering the command, click on "Next" button. Now enter a meaningful name for your new shortcut and click on "Finish" button.

4. It'll create a new shortcut on Desktop:

5. Now its time to change the new shortcut icon. Right-click on the shortcut and select "Properties". Click on "Change Icon" button.

6. Now you can browse and select any desired icon. We'll recommend to use imageres.dll file for selecting new icon as this file contains lots of good looking icons:

7. After selecting the new icon, click on OK and then Apply the changes.

8. Now you just need to pin this new shortcut to Taskbar. You can either drag-n-drop the shortcut to Taskbar or right-click on the shortcut and select "Pin to Taskbar" option:

9. That's it. You can pin as many shortcuts as you want to Taskbar using this tutorial:

This article was posted in Windows 7.

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17 Comments

SaVvY

Thankss
SaVvY

Thankss
Saif

Thanks! But recycle bin is useless if the icon won't change when it's full! Also useless because I can't right click it and choose empty.
Steja007

Hey Very Very Thanks..
Drifta

what happens if we delete the original shortcut from the desktop after pinning it to the task bar?
VG

^^ Nothing. You can safely remove the shortcut from Desktop.
Lubana

VG ....... Help Me I Cant Get This Done..... I Am Not Getting Any "Pin To Taskbar" Option In The Right Click Context Menu...:( Help Me...!
Dementor

Is it possible to pin Aero Flip 3D shortcut, copied from Vista, to taskbar? It doesn't pins there...
VG

^^ Its working fine here. Use following command while creating Flip 3D shortcut:

RunDll32 DwmApi #105

@Lubana
Did you try to drag-n-drop the shortcut to Taskbar?
madaya

I am also Not Getting Any "Pin To Taskbar" Option In The Right Click Context Menu... and also tried to drag-n-drop the shortcut to Taskbar. Not working