4 Ways To Pin A Folder on Taskbar in Windows 7

12

We all know that we can’t pin a folder directly to the taskbar in Windows 7. However, if you really want that feature, here are 4 workarounds that you may find helpful, 2 of them we have already covered here before.

Way #1: using a dummy executable file to fool Windows 7

We have covered this before but here are 3 steps in brief.

1. Create a dummy.exe file on desktop.

2. Pin this dummy.exe to the taskbar.

3. Change the pined dummy.exe file’s property to point the Target textbox to the folder you want to pin.

Way #2: a smart use of Explorer.exe

Thanks to the reader Dan who commented on our Way #1 post about a much easy way that smartly uses built-in Explorer.exe. Here is the steps in detail.

1. Create a shortcut on desktop by right-clicking on blank area on desktop, New, and Shortcut.

2. Type in the following command in the location box.

explorer.exe c:\folder\to\path

Note that you can replace “c:\folder\to\path” with a real path to the folder you want to pin.

image23 - 4 Ways To Pin A Folder on Taskbar in Windows 7

3. Type a name for the shortcut.

4. Right-click on the shortcut just created, and pin it to the taskbar.

Way #3: use 3rd party tools to make it prettier

There are also tools out there that can even make a pined folder much prettier. We covered 2 tools before, 7Stacks and StandaloneStack 2. Both tools can pin a specified tool on taskbar with stacking the content inside the folder. We recommend the latter one because it seems to be running a bit smoother and looks a bit nicer as well.

image57 - 4 Ways To Pin A Folder on Taskbar in Windows 7image16 - 4 Ways To Pin A Folder on Taskbar in Windows 7

Way #4: a tricky use of toolbar

Well, this isn’t really a way to pin a folder to the taskbar that has all the fancy features that come with it like jumplist. It’s just a tricky use of toolbar to make a folder appeared on taskbar.

Right-click on the blank space on taskbar, go to Toolbars, and New Toolbar…

image24 - 4 Ways To Pin A Folder on Taskbar in Windows 7

Browser to the folder that contain the folder you want to pin, and select that folder.

image25 - 4 Ways To Pin A Folder on Taskbar in Windows 7

See, I just “pined” a folder named Tools to the taskbar and this is what it looks like.

image26 - 4 Ways To Pin A Folder on Taskbar in Windows 7

What’s my choice?

Personally, I like and use way #4 most of the time. However, it’s just my own opinion that only represents my own choice. What’s yours?

12 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you very much for this great posting. It solved my need, 3 different ways (I didn’t try the 3rd-party approach).

    I like way #4 as well, because it has the nice pop-up menu access, but usually I just want a specific folder to open up, and for that I find that way #1 EXECUTES MUCH FASTER than way #2.

    Now, we’re only talking about maybe 1 second difference on my Core 2 Duo Dual Core laptop, but when way #1 happens almost instantly and the other takes almost a second, it’s a big deal to me.

    Can anyone else confirm or refute this by testing it?

  2. There is a more easier way which used.
    – Just open any fodler that you want to Pin
    – In address bar of that folder, you see the yellow folder small icon (left side from where the address started)
    – Drag that folder icon & drop it to the taskbar. You’ll see a message “Pin to Windows Explorer”. Then drop it.
    – That’s it.

    • Thanks Nasir for the tip. However, this tip only pin the folder into the Windows Explorer Jump List. What I showed here is to pin individual folder directly into the taskbar.

      Cheers.

      • Is there a way to pin a specific item in the Control Panel to the task bar? For example: when I try to pin Power Options I simply get a shortcut to the entire Control Panel. That’s not any faster than simply typing “power” into the start search dialogue.

        • There in no faster or better way than this!

          How to Pin a Folder to the Taskbar

          In order to pin a folder to the taskbar, you first need to create a shortcut on your desktop towards it. To do this, right-click on the empty space on your desktop and select New and then Shortcut.

          In the ‘Create Shortcut’ window, click on Browse to find the folder that you want to add to the taskbar. Navigate to that folder, select it and click on OK.

          NOTE: You can add even folders that are shared in your local network.

          The path to the folder is now shown in the location field. Before you press next, you need to add one more thing. In front of the folder path, write the following word: explorer. Also, make sure that there is a space between this code and the path of the folder.

          It Should look like this: explorer “Folder path” When done, click on Next.

          Now you have the folder shortcut on your desktop. To have it on your taskbar, make a simple drag and drop. Alternatively, you can right-click on it and select ‘Pin to taskbar’.

          After pinning the folders you want to have on the taskbar, you can go ahead and delete their shortcuts from your Desktop. The taskbar shortcuts will continue to work.

  3. Really useful. I love option 4 its really easy to do i have all my games in one folder and apps in another. Pinned has two N’s though. It felt like you were deeply longing for folders throughout that article. I could picture you howling at the moon, pining for your lost, loved folders.

  4. I love option #4 as well. The drawback is you need to point to the arrows of the folder on the taskbar. I would like instead to treat “folder-toolbar” as buton so I can click easily. Is there such possibility?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here