Out of the box, Windows 7 allows you to pin programs to the taskbar. In later versions of Windows like Windows 8 and Windows 10, Microsoft allows the user to pin folders and settings to Start but not the Taskbar. In this article, we will see how to pin a file to the taskbar in Windows 10.
Tag: Pin any file
How to pin folders, drives, files or any shortcut to the Taskbar in Windows 8 and Windows 7
Microsoft introduced a redesigned taskbar in Windows 7, which got rid of the Quick Launch toolbar. Even though Quick Launch can be put back, the larger icons on the new Taskbar are better for today's resolutions. Also, with the new Taskbar, Microsoft added 1-click pinning of items. Unfortunately, not everything can be pinned to the Taskbar. For example, folders or disk drives cannot be pinned directly, nor can you pin files directly. Pinning Control Panel items, Libraries, special commands also isn't easy. Luckily, Winaero has Taskbar Pinner for our readers.
How to add the “Pin to Start Screen” menu item to all files in Windows 8.1
With Windows 8.1, Microsoft has restricted access to the 'Pin to Start Screen' menu command for 3rd party apps. You might be curious, what does it mean? While in Windows 8, apps were able to get programmatic access to that menu item. You might see such behavior in Mozilla Firefox installer: after the install, it "pins" itself to the taskbar. The same thing could be implemented in Windows 8, any app was able to pin itself to the Start Screen. Not so in Windows 8.1.
Why did Microsoft do this? Because they wanted to prevent the Start Screen from getting cluttered. Unlike Windows 8 (which pins everything to its Start screen like a maniac), Windows 8.1 keeps its Start Screen clean. As a result of these changes, the command I mentioned above is now strictly accessible only from Explorer! This is also why my application, Pin To 8, was not able to pin anything to the Start screen.
Today I will show you, how you can extend File Explorer in Windows 8.1 and add the ability to pin ANY file or object to the Start Screen. No 3rd party apps will be required, only a simple registry tweak.
How to unblock native “Pin to Start Screen” command for any file or object in Windows 8
As you may know, Windows 8 introduced а new feature that allows your to pin programs and folders to the Start screen. By default, this feature is limited only to executable files, shortcuts, management console (*.msc) and folders/libraries. Today I am going to share a simple registry tweak that enables you to pin any file to the Start screen.
