How to pin folders and drives to the Taskbar in Windows 10

[JamieKavanagh]

The Taskbar is one of the most useful features in Windows. It allows fast access to your most-used programs regardless of what is going on within the screen. For multitaskers like me, the Taskbar is essential. Rather than having to Alt-tab in and out of Windows, I can just click an app and begin working right away. If you want to customize your Taskbar to speed up the way you work, here’s how to pin folders and drives to the Taskbar in Windows 10.

Pin folders and drives to the Taskbar in Windows 10
Microsoft have fortunately made it easy to customize your desktop as you see fit. Unfortunately, unlike an executable, there is no option to ‘pin to Taskbar’ option with a file or folder. We need a couple of extra steps to get it working.

1. Navigate to the file or drive you want to add.
2. Right click on it and select ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’.
3. Right click the new shortcut on the desktop and select Properties.
4. Add ‘explorer’ in front of the address in the Target box and click Apply.
5. Change the icon to something unique by selecting ‘Change icon’. Ensure you’re browsing ‘imageres.dll’ and select an icon.
6. Click OK.
7. Drag and drop the folder or drive onto the Taskbar.

For reference, your Taskbar shortcuts are kept in ‘%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar’. Even though you can drag and drop icons into the folder, they don’t always appear on the Taskbar so this process is necessary to pin folders and drives to the Taskbar in Windows 10.

More Windows 10 app tutorials you might find helpful:
How to change sync frequency of the Windows 10 Mail app
How to uninstall and reinstall Windows 10 built-in apps
How to Turn On or Off the Game Bar in Windows 10

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