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:HomegroupFolder (for Homegroup 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 by VG in following section: Windows 7.
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VG
^^ Did you try to drag-n-drop the shortcut on Taskbar?
TheAslan
Yes, and it didn't work, it didn't give me a chance to drop it there at all...
TheAslan
There's so much easier way to pin My Computer icon to taskbar with the icon you want!
> Use IconPackager or TuneUp Utilites to change your "Computer" icon, make sure your icon is changed to your desktop
> Click "Computer" in your desktop
> Now you can see that there's your "Computer" icon in taskbar with the icon you wanted but it's not pinned in taskbar yet
> Check your "Computer" icon in taskbar and right click it and select pin this program to taskbar
> Now you can see that your "Computer" icon stays in taskbar with your new icon
> Open "Computer" again, and it opens it in your pinned icon
> When you get bored in that "Computer" icon in taskbar just select unpin this program in taskbar and then use TuneUp or IconPackager again to change the icon then repeat this very simple method!!
> When you follow this tutorial you don't have to create a new "Computer" shortcut to desktop!!!!
TheAslan
Here's a tutorial how to pin "sleep, restart, shutdown, lock, logoff" icons to tasbar, actually the method is same what Vishal used on this topic, so lets start!
Sleep.)
1.) Create a new shortcut to your desktop
2.) Command: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState
3.) Name it to "Sleep"
4.) Right click the icon and select your custom icon
5.) Pin the shortcut to taskbar
Restart.)
1.) Create a new shortcut to your desktop
2.) Command: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -t 00
3.) Name it to "Restart"
4.) Right click the icon and select your custom icon
5.) Pin the shortcut to taskbar
Shutdown.)
1.) Create a new shortcut to your desktop
2.) Command: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -t 00
3.) Name it to "Shutdown"
4.) Right click the icon and select your custom icon
5.) Pin the shortcut to taskbar
Lock.)
1.) Create a new shortcut to your desktop
2.) Command: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation
3.) Name it to "Lock"
4.) Right click the icon and select your custom icon
5.) Pin the shortcut to taskbar
Logoff.)
1.) Create a new shortcut to your desktop
2.) Command: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -L
3.) Name it to "Logoff"
4.) Right click the icon and select your custom icon
5.) Pin the shortcut to taskbar
I think that this is very helpful for many people, and maybe Vishal adds this to his site some day, if he does maybe he gives me a full credit for this...hehe. But comments are always welcome to me!!
TheAslan
Sorry about my last post, there's a wrong command in shutdown, so here's the confirmation message where's the all right commands:
Sleep: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState
Restart: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -t 00
Shutdown: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 00
Lock: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation
Logoff: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -L
I'm very sorry! I was very careful when i wrote that message but still...
Ankit
Hi bhaiya,
Is it possible to pin any folder (say d:\files) ??
Thanks...
zanyman
Awesome! Thanks so much for this. I hate having to right click on the miserable libraries icon and select my documents!
Jonathan
The glitch with this method is that the first icon you make in this way on the taskbar takes over the role of the default "Pin to Windows Explorer" location. So if you make a taskbar shortcut to My Computer as shown above, then all future folders that you drag to the taskbar will "pin to My Computer" instead of pinning to separate Explorer icon.
It's worse if you have created a Recycle Bin shortcut on the taskbar to the left of My Computer, because then all folders will be pinned to the Recycle Bin. This can be worked around by making sure there is an explorer icon to the left of where you put the My Computer or any other icon created above on the taskbar. Unfortunately this doesn't work for me, because I'm setting up desktops for my users with little technical knowledge, who may rearrange the order of the taskbar icons at some point.
Does anyone know how to make a My Computer taskbar icon without this link to windows explorer? Is there a file path for My Computer without windows.exe in it?
Jonathan
I just found a solution how to put the My Computer icon on the taskbar without it becoming the default explorer location!
Using a VBScript to launch My Computer folder:
Copy the lines below to Notepad, and save the file as "MyComputer.vbs"
set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
objShell.ShellExecute "shell:MyComputerFolder", "", "", "open", 1
Create a shortcut to the script mentioning the full path, such as below:
C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe "D:\MyScripts\MyComp.vbs"
(You can change the path inside the quotes to any place you'd like to keep the script file)
Change the shortcut icon as VG shows above, and then Pin it to the Taskbar.
Now you've got a stand alone My Computer icon on the taskbar!
By the way VG, I'm a big fan of yours. I like your style, everything you post is clear and very well thought out. --Jonathan
john
None of the non-programmatic methods work here. a shortcut simply won't get pinned to the taskbar. and the VG.REG suggestion didn't work either.
I was just handed a brand new dell laptop here at work on Windows7 and I'm going to give it back to the IT guy and use my crappy old Lenovo because it still has Windows XP and I can do my work 2X faster.
Having to click "all programs" from the start menu (or wait 5 seconds) is another nonsensical thing MSFT did to Windows 7
I have Windows 7 at home but I don't have to work as fast there as here.