In one of our previous articles we explained how to pin down to the taskbar a generic folder. In this article, I will show how to pin to the taskbar special Windows folders like Libraries, Computer, Network or even specific items from Control Panel or Administrative Tools.

Pin Windows Explorer Categories

Step 1. Open Windows Explorer and look at the main categories from the left side of the window: Favorites, Libraries, Computer and Network. To pin any of them or their sub-categories, first create a shortcut to your desktop. The fastest way to create it is to drag-and-drop the item from Windows Explorer to the desktop.

Except for the Favorites sub-categories, you can do this with all items you want to pin. If you try to do this with Favorites sub-categories, you will see that the drag-and-drop will move the item from Favorites to the desktop. This happens because the Favorites sub-categories are already shortcuts. Therefore you need to simply select these shortcuts, click on Copy, go to the desktop, right click on it and select Paste.

Repeat this process for all the items that you want to pin to the taskbar.

Step 2. Now you need to create a new folder on your desktop. To do this, right-click on the empty space from your desktop, click on New and then on Folder. Choose a name for it, something suggestive, like 'taskbar shortcuts' because you will move all the shortcuts that you want to pin to that folder. Move all the items that you want to pin to the taskbar to the newly created folder and move the folder to a location where it is not going to be deleted.

Step 3. Open the folder, right-click on the first item that you want to pin to the taskbar and click on Copy.

Step 4. Go back to your desktop, right-click on the empty space, select New and then click on Shortcut.

Step 5. In the 'Create Shortcut' window, paste the shortcut you just copied. This will add the path towards the shortcut.

Step 6. Add the word explorer in front of the shortcut path, press once the Space key from your keyboard and click on Next.

Step 7. Enter a name for the new shortcut, preferably the same name as the item that you want to pin to the taskbar. Then, click on Finish.

Step 8. Now you have the shortcut on your desktop. To have it on your taskbar, make a simple drag and drop from desktop to the taskbar. Alternatively, you can right-click on it and select 'Pin to taskbar'. After the item is pinned down to the taskbar you can delete the shortcut from the desktop. Also, you can change the default icon with another one.

Repeat steps 3 to 8 for all shortcuts that you want to pin.

NOTE: Make sure that you don't delete or move the folder where you placed the shortcuts (e.g.: 'taskbar shortcuts') because the items that are pinned down to the taskbar will not work anymore.

Pin Control Panel Items

Before explaining how to pin a Control Panel item to the taskbar, let's see how to pin the Control Panel itself. First, open Control Panel.

Right click on the Control Panel icon from the taskbar and select 'Pin this program to the taskbar'.

Now let's see how to pin to the taskbar any item from the Control Panel.

Open the Control Panel and drag-and-drop the item you want from the Control Panel window to the desktop. This will create a shortcut on the desktop for it.

Do this for all Control Panel items that you want to pin to the taskbar. When you're done, move all the shortcuts to a new folder or to the 'taskbar shortcuts' folder that you have previously created and follow exactly the same procedure as above, starting with step 3.

Pin Administrative Tools

To open the Administrative Tools, search in the Start menu search box after 'administrative tools' or follow this path: Start Menu -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools.

All the Administrative Tools are already shortcuts, which means that you don't have to save them to another folder. Simply right-click on the tools that you want to pin to the taskbar, select Copy and then follow the procedure from above, starting with step 4.

Pinning Advanced Items

Since we could not include all possible scenarios in this article, we created other tutorials which show how to pin more special types of items:

• Pin Shortcuts with Parameters on the Taskbar or the Start Menu - if, for example, you want to pin a Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel document to the taskbar, use this tutorial. Make a shortcut as shown and add as a parameter, the path towards the document you want to pin. This tutorial also works great when you want to pin shortcuts towards applications which need to start in a custom way.
• How to Pin Any Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar - if you want to pin a folder to the taskbar, this tutorial shows how it is done.

Conclusion

As you have probably noticed, there is only one simple rule that you have to follow in order to make almost any item "pinnable" to the taskbar: create a shortcut, save it somewhere safe so you don't delete it by mistake, create a shortcut to that shortcut and add the explorer word before its path. Then you have a shortcut which you can pin to the taskbar.

If you have simpler solutions, don't hesitate to share them via the comments form below.

Related articles:

How to Customize the Taskbar
Taskbar Productivity Tips & Shortcuts
How to Create your Own Custom Jump List