99 Responses to “How to pin a folder to the taskbar in Windows”

  • Woodman Yeung says:

    How to pin a folder to the taskbar on Windows 11 does not work for me.
    My desktop computer is running Windows 11 Version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.2715). When I right click on a folder and click show more options, it does not show the “pin to taskbar ” option in that window. I attempted to use snipping tool to capture the picture and paste it in this comment for your information but this comment square does not allow me to do so. Kindly advise. Thank you.

    • Ciprian Adrian Rusen says:

      Can you please carefully read our tutorial? Our instructions are about how to get around the limitation you described. Doing things as you tried, doesn’t work.

  • Bob K says:

    Does not work (Win 7) I add the word explorer and hit next. The shortcut is changed to

    C:\explorer”C:\Users\Owner —–

    In other words the program automatically adds a C:\ before the word explorer. No way to remove it.

    Any suggestions

  • B says:

    H!, Thank you this saved my day:

    YS: B

  • Sparrow says:

    Thank you so much. This worked to add programs / executable / .bat files that don’t normally work to add to the taskbar.

  • Aurelio says:

    Many thanks. This worked perfectly. May I please ask, why does adding “explorer” does the magic?

    Aurelio

  • Ty says:

    This does not work. If you say make a shortcut for the Download folder, drag it to the taskbar and pin it, when you close then reopen by clicking the folder icon on the taskbar it opens the Quck Access folder.

  • Tace says:

    Works like a charm for me. I love this trick. I purchased Revo a couple of years ago and couldn’t pin it to the taskbar. I chatted with a Revo tech as to why they coded it so it wouldn’t pin. He said to send it to the desktop and change the name there. We created a couple of names for the icon on the desktop. I removed “uninstall” and it didn’t work. Then he said to remove the “Pro” and leave Revo. I did and it worked. The name change has never worked for me again but, this does and I have become a wiz at this. I just need to learn how to get the icons I find elsewhere to work. I haven’t learned how to do this yet. Do you have a tutorial on this also? Thanks for this tutorial. You did an awesome job of explaining each step so clearly.

  • Jayaprakash says:

    Very simple but useful , very good

  • Anne says:

    Thank-you! This was exactly what I was looking for and so helpful!!

  • Iqbal says:

    Your method is the best I have found till now. I keep coming back to it when I forget how it’s done. Thanks so much.

  • bulent says:

    when i try to make a shortcut to be pinned to taskbar; 1- The word “explorer” is changed to windowsexplorer.
    2- the shortcut does Not work in either on desktop or in the task bar.

    it used to work before but no matter what i do,(resetting windows to factory settings- downloading registry batch files, or anything else suggested here) the result is the same.

    Thank you for your help beforehand

  • MLO says:

    Thanks for this. It works perfect in Windows 10. I had been using the toolbars quicklaunch (for program shortcuts) and a Games folder (for game shortcuts) I created. Problem is Windows 10 has this bad habit of when opening either Quicklaunch or the Games Toolbar, it took like a minute to open every time I started Windows up the next day. It was a royal pain in my neck and made those toolbars rather worthless (having to wait for all the shortcuts to load before I could do anything). I had searched and searched for a fix for this and never found one. I was resigned to the fact that Microsoft just had this behavior with toolbars and it’s just the way it was. Thanks Bill. This method fixed that. I got rid of those two toolbars and created two folders, one for program shortcuts and one for game shortcuts and then copied all the shortcuts over to them. I then did this method and then pinned this both to taskbar separate of File Explorer . Now I have instant access to all the same shortcuts as before but now don’t have to wait for them to load before use anymore. Took me ages to finally get the solution to this situation that was driving me nuts. Now I’m good.

  • db-user says:

    There is a rather serious problem with your approach.

    If, for example, there is a sub-folder in “Digital System”, right-clicking on it (to obtain the context menu), sends the Windows Explorer under Win 7 in an infinite loop. (the famous donut).

  • Dave says:

    It worked great — just as you described. Thanks so much — I’ve been fighting this for several years & finally looked your article up.

  • Thanks says:

    I’ve been testing many things and oly this method worked for me. Thanks a lot

  • Michael says:

    As others have mentioned I also do not have the “Pin to Taskbar” available as an option when right clicking the shortcut on the desktop. I have “Pin to Start’ but no “Pin to Taskbar” or “”quick Launch’ either.

  • Leanne J. Stack-Martin says:

    Thank you for your assistance, and your process works, but only when the option to ‘Pin to Task Bar’ is listed. Until today, I thought this would always be an included option for desktop shortcuts, but it’s not. For some reason, it’s been replaced by “Pin to Quick Access” (at least for some shortcuts), and I don’t even know where that would be, but it is not on the Task Bar! We need a way to attach a shortcut to the Task Bar, for those occasions when you double click on the Shortcut and that option is not provided.

  • Bob Kee says:

    This is a must have tip – really helps for fast drill down to any folder location without the hassle of a Toolbar. MS should just allow this option for any folder.

  • Furqaan says:

    Thanks a lot bro, it really helped me! I wasnt able to figure out how can I pin a folder to my taskbar. Thanks for help!

  • cheryl says:

    THANK YOU! I can’t believe they would develop a version of windows, windows 10, force you to use it, and then make it ridiculously difficult to do something simple like find saved files!

  • eddy says:

    thx is worked

  • Tom says:

    This was EXCELLENT help. Thanks!

  • Cjo says:

    Just drag and drop the folder to task bar !! It’s very simple πŸ™‚

  • Patscheck says:

    The easy way to do this is to create a shortcut on the desktop for the folder you want to pin and drag it to the explorer folder in the taskbar. When you drag you will get the message “Pin to taskbar” as you drop it. Then delete the shortcut. The folder will be pinned.

  • Jim says:

    Awesome, thanks!

  • Lakmal says:

    Great. Thanks.

  • Glen says:

    Awesome thx mate

  • Amrutha Josyula says:

    Worked like a charm. Very simple and easily described. Thank you for your assistance with this!

  • P says:

    Bless you, you have brought an end to a very large pain in my arse

  • James L says:

    THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOUUUUUUUUU! Saved me so much time trying to figure out how to get something like this to work!

  • Sharon says:

    RESOLVED! Found the answer to my OWN question! You can set your JUMP list to 60… but all may not be displayed. Here’s the answer and instructions and IT WORKED!!! http://malektips.com/windows-7-jump-list-size-increase-decrease.html#.VUbBa_lVgoI

  • Sharon says:

    HELP~ Ok, I really, really use the lower taskbar JUMP features a LOT, but I cannot find ANYWHERE what the LIMIT of items are for each icon. I am using 12 on the internet chrome icon; and I have 15 folders in the Explorer icon, but I want to add one more folder, but it won’t let me. WHERE are these “limits” explained????? Your viewers should also take note: there’s been 2 occasions for unknown reason where my JUMP items have disappeared… so I’ve learned to not only LIST them on a Notepad, but I also keep a copy of the shortcuts in a folder-for quick rejuvenation. Thanks -using HP PC Windows 7 Home Premium version

  • Wanne says:

    Great tutorial! Seems like a serious flaw that we’re not able just to drag a folder to the task bar.

    • Ciprian Adrian Rusen says:

      It’s more like bad design. They never thought about implementing this feature.

  • Mike Scarborough says:

    Worked like a charm!!! I really needed this. You are a good technical writer.

  • Karol says:

    It doesn’t really do me any good to pin folders to the taskbar if I have to leave them on the desktop anyway.

  • george says:

    i can’t get past the “click or tap Browse” part of your instructions. Where do i find the Browse command?

  • Francesco says:

    Thanks!!!

  • muzzu says:

    Thank You!!!

  • Bill says:

    Thanks, worked, solved my problem

  • Ruby says:

    Thank you! Very clear and easy to understand instructions with helpful details and great images. Love your work!

  • chris says:

    Doesn’t work for me: It gets pinned and everything, but when I click on the icon in the task bar it takes me to C: and not C:Userschris

    • David Vanderschel says:

      See my earlier reply to myself. (You encountered the same problem I did, and I would have expected this tutorial to have been corrected.)

    • Ciprian Adrian Rusen says:

      What if you write explorer.exe "C:Userschris" instead of explorer "C:Userschris".

      Also, always use the ” for the path to the folder you want to pin.

  • M says:

    This works fine if you only pin one icon but I found that if I try to pin two, opening the latter-added icon will cause it to add a currently-opened listing under BOTH of the icons.

    This sort of defeats the purpose of “one click access for most common folders” because you now need to click twice. Since there are multiple folders opened under the same icon, it requires a first click to display the “sub-options” and then click again to specify which one you want.

    Very annoying as the list eventually builds up, adding all subsequently-opened folders to the list under your shortcut icons (even if they’re completely unrelated) & makes folder switching very time consuming when you add up a dozen instances or “hmmm, let me see which one it was….nope, nope, nope, nope… nope… oh, this one!” per hour over the course of a work day, every day for the entire year.

    This should be basic functionality, I can’t believe folder navigation still has such bugs this late into windows.

    As an aside, this captcha system you guys have is complete trash. “Captcha reuse attack detected” ok.jpg

  • Gillian says:

    Thank you. I needed to know how to pin a file to the taskbar in Windows 7. It will make life much easier for me now. Everything is very clearly explained.

  • David Vanderschel says:

    Does not work for me. In Windows 8.1, after creating the shortcut on the desktop, there is no option in my context menu for the shortcut to pin it to the taskbar. Pin to Start, yes. If I have no other folder on the taskbar and I open the folder, then I can pin it using the icon which now appears on the taskbar. However, when I close the folder, the pinned icon simply becomes the generic This PC ‘folder’. Any way around this? I want to pin a _particular_ folder, and I don’t want it to merge.

  • Mark says:

    The file path “%windir%system32imageres.dll” appears not to exist for windows 8.1 when trying to find additional icons.

    • Marte Brengle says:

      So far I haven’t been able to find where the icon file location is in Win8.1. Sorry!

  • Dino says:

    Great help! Thank you very much.

  • Donna Guidry says:

    I would give away my dog, my husband, and possibly my house if you could get your trick to work for me, but when I follow your directions exactly (the ones with the visual pics at the beginning), I do not have an option to Pin to the Task Bar. πŸ™ Your steps are easy to follow…I wonder why it won’t work for me? I really, really wanted this to work. Donna in Texas

  • malan says:

    awesome! managed to pin music folder to my taskbar 18 months after purchasing my laptop, haha. thanks for the clear instructions.

  • Santhini says:

    This was helpful.
    Thanks

  • Brentonious says:

    Can anyone tell me how to pin folders to the taskbar folder in Windows 2010? I used to have no trouble with Windows 2007. Now I can’t figure it out! Please reply to this post as I entered the wrong email in the earlier post – thank you!

  • Brentonious says:

    Does anyone know if you can pin folders to the folder shortcut in Windows 2010? I’ve having trouble doing that. Let me know how if you do please!

  • John says:

    …Or you can just drag the folder immediately to the taskbar and it will be pinned under the usual forlder icon on the bottom left which you access by right-clicking it.

  • fanboy says:

    Seriously? On a Mac you just drag it to the task bar.

  • Etosha says:

    Me too! πŸ™‚

  • Stephen Cleamer says:

    I love you.

    Sincerely,
    My clicking finger.

  • Dallas says:

    Thanks! I have been trying to do this for ages!!! Worked perfectly!

  • gassab says:

    If you place the added folder to the left of the explorer folder on the taskbar it will be just fine not opening in explorer.

    Goodluck

  • Deadly-Bagel says:

    MUCH easier method and with more flexibility, pin ‘Windows Explorer’ to the task bar. Yes, when opened, this will open your Libraries, but keep reading. Find the folder you want easy access to, and drag it onto the new Windows Explorer icon on the task bar. When you right click it on the task bar, a list of all the folders you have pinned to it will appear, as well as frequently used ones.

    You’ll need two clicks rather than just one, but it’s much easier to set up and you can attach many folders to it instead of just one.

  • Anonymous says:

    Open a window explorer; go to where the folder you want to pin is; right click and drag the folder to Windows 7 Taskbar; release the right mouse button when you see “Pin to windows explorer” tool tip message. That’s it.

  • Anonymous says:

    I have done it that way too!

    It was pain in the *** because i have tried creating a shortcut of “Favorites” (in the sidebar/i find this folder so useful!) using a shortcut + shell command and i have not found the shell command for this Favorites… Grrr

    if anyone has it?

  • Jurgen Hissen says:

    Turns out there’s a much easier way:

    Grab the folder you want to pin. Drag it onto the windows explorer icon on the taskbar. The cursor icon displays a “pin to windows explorer”.

    Done.

    (I only found this with inspiration from your pictures above).

    Why this behaves differently from everything else, nobody knows..

  • Tim Malone says:

    Thanks man, I researched this for about an hour or so and everybody had me trying to edit registry keys and a bunch of other non-sense. Hands down this was the best tutorial that I have seen on this subject. Thanks for taking the time to put it together!!

  • Anonymous says:

    I followed your steps, but my problem i face is that the folder I want on the taskbar is from a partitioned drive. Explorer is from C:/ but the folder I’m making a shortcut of is on D:/…Will I not be able to make a direct shortcut to the folder because the source didn’t come from c:/??

    Here is a screen shot of the problem…

    Step 1
    http://img80.imageshack.us/f/94781734.jpg/
    Step 2
    http://img807.imageshack.us/f/98347234.jpg/
    Error
    http://img718.imageshack.us/f/43679457.jpg/

  • Anonymous says:

    A New Toolbar is faster:
    I find it faster to create and use by having a new taskbar with a shortcut on my taskbar.
    Create a folder with shortcuts to favourite programs, files, other folders etc.
    On the taskbar, right-click> Toolbars>New Toolbar>browse to the folder and wolla! (its done!)

    Next to the name of the new toolbar (on the taskbar), appears /”>>” which upon clicking on it, shows all the content of the folder in a compact list without opening the folder.

    Its much faster to setup and use than the procedure here (although I would still prefer to improve this by showing larger icons and by having more to click on than only the >> which is rarther small, so I am still looking…)

  • Anonymous says:

    While this works, do note that this will create extra Explorer.exe procedures since executes it everytime it is used.

  • bob123 says:

    Sorry, if this question has already been asked. After you pin a folder how do you make it show contents like in the old XP Classic style Start Menu – i.e. click on the folder and it branches out to shortcuts inside? Does my question make sense?

    Thank you. πŸ™‚

  • Shawn says:

    WORKEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
    THANK YOU

    THIS WAS A HUGE PAIN FOR ME

  • DaniJani says:

    ok i have a lil homemade fix for this, i usually like to keep my drives and most used folders in quick launch,…so i just made my own quick launch since windows 7 doesnt have a decent one…

    i created a folder on desktop put shortcuts for all my folders that i need to be seen on taskbar as quicklaunch…

    then i made a shortcut on desktop n targeted the folder i created, now i have the shortcut on the desktop containing all the shortcuts i need on my quicklaunch..

    now i just rightclick on taskbar>toolbars>new toolbar….now select that shortcut folder on desktop n u have it in ur taskbar ..

    to simplify it as windows vista/xp quick launch, simply right click on the new toolbar and uncheck show title and show text…move it anywhere,,..u own windows 7!

  • Anonymous says:

    Hi i have managed to work this out the problem was i was not leaving a space after thw word explorer and the letter C.
    it now work brilliant thank you

    • Ciprian says:

      Actually, the correct version is: explorer “C:program data….”
      You don’t need any C:explorer at the beginning. It is an incorrect path.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes i see that now but if you dont put a space between the word exprorer and “C:program data…… then widows puts it there automaticly and then i will not work but if you leave a space between the explorer and C: programdata it works perfect. you just need the space.
        Regards for the help.

  • Anonymous says:

    I have followed you instructions to get my microsoft office folder on to the task bar on windows 7. but when i put the word explorer at the start windows inserts another C: and the the path is wrong. if i leave out the word explorer it works but i can not pin it to the task bar

  • Slim says:

    You can just drag the folder (to which you are creating a shortcut) onto the start button and drop it. A shortcut will automatically be created and pinned to the start menu.

  • Anonymous says:

    attempting to pin an Office shortcut described above to the Taskbar, after creating the shortcut, the only options for pinning are to the Start Menu. there’s no “Pin to Taskbar” item – even when shift-rightclicking. what’s up with that? thanks for the tips

  • w7 says:

    Nice..Work for my Windows 7..Thanks.

  • Anonymous says:

    Any chance anyone knows how to make that newly pinned folder behave like a menu?

  • Anonymous says:

    I wasn’t able to get a new icon to stick to the folder. Maybe that’s the bug you were talking about. I’m not sure what you meant in your bug description. Or you meant this:

    I pinned 2 different WE folders onto the taskbar per your instructions. When I click them one after the other, both WE screens will open, pointing to the 2 different folders which I added to the taskbar. But if I click on one taskbar icon, then wait, then click the remaining icon, the 2nd icon will open up the same path as the first icon I just opened.

    • Ciprian says:

      That’s exactly what I mean. Sorry if the explanation wasn’t very clear.

    • George says:

      About the icon, that’s another bug. Apparently, you can’t change the icon of a folder pinned to the taskbar. However, you can change the icon before you pin the folder to the taskbar.

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