How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar

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Strangely with all the Windows 7 taskbar feature and the new Jump list, the taskbar itself does not support pin folders onto it. Windows only allow user to pin executable programs in the taskbar, so if you want to pin specific folders on the taskbar you need to trick Windows think its a program at first.

Here is the work around how you can pin a folder on the Taskbar

1. Create a new dummy .exe file

W7H folder - How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar

Right click anywhere and create a new text file, make sure you have turned on the extension in folder option. You can name whatever you want, and make sure change the extension to .exe

yes rename - How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar

When it ask you this warning message say yes.

2. Pin the dummy program on the taskbar

pin task bar - How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar

Now you can pin this on the taskbar now

properties W7H - How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar

Right click go to properties >

change traget - How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar

You will see the Target is point to the dummy program you’ve just created on the desktop. At this point you can change the target to point it to the folder you would like it to be pin on the taskbar.

new location - How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar Here for example I’ve changed the Target to pointing to my W7H folder.

3. Customization change the look

change folder icon - How To Pin Folders In Windows 7 Taskbar

Now you are pretty much done. However you can go future by changing the display icon.

If by default it icon path doesn’t point to the right icon set you can use the following path to find the icon you want.

%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll

Enjoy. You’ve just pined a folder on the taskbar.

12 COMMENTS

  1. Very nice tip. I do wish, however, that Windows 7 had a “Group” feature in the taskbar, like the Mac has a Stacks feature.

  2. There is a much easier way to do this…

    simply create a shortcut on the desktop and use this as the shortcut location:

    explorer C:pathtofolder

    Give it a friendly name, and test that it works by double-clicking the shortcut. You can right-click the shortcut and modify the icon or the name, etc.

    When satisfied right-click and select Pin to Taskbar, and you’re done! And you can remove the desktop shortcut without any impact.

    Hope that helps!

  3. This doesn’t work for the root of a drive unfortunately – like if I want explorer to open in ‘F:’ this wont work.
    The explorer keeps opening in ‘libraries’.

    Only place I was able to have explorer stick to the ‘Target’ was in the start menu 🙁

  4. It’s easier to open the Library on the task bar and click on “new library”. Then add an appropriate name. Right click on the new library and press “Include a Folder”. Etc….

  5. Neither process seems to work. If I try the shortcut method suggested by Dan, when I right-click the shortcut there is no option to pin to taskbar.

  6. Thanks – your solution worked. The shortcut and rename with explorer in properties didn’t work for my desktop shortcut and my external drive shortcut.

  7. Look….ALL you gotta do is open a folder that you want pinned. Drag the icon in the address bar (to the left of the folder’s path address), and drag it down to the explorer icon on taskbar. If you hover over it, it will say pin to explorer

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